Framing pluripotency: iPS cells and the shaping of stem cell science

Abstract

In the last decade, the pluripotency of human embryonic stem cells, i.e. their capacity to differentiate into any cell of the body and multiply endlessly, has encouraged visions and hopes for a new regenerative medicine. However, research with human embryos and cells derived from them is ethically controversial and different regulatory frameworks have developed across countries. In 2007, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells were generated that have been framed as a scientific breakthrough, which may provide an ethical alternative to embryonic stem cells. Drawing on interviews with embryonic stem cell researchers in Germany and the UK this article examines how scientists relate to iPS cells as new research objects. We show how three different aspects of stem cell science, namely ethical debate, therapeutic expectations and scientific uncertainty are tied together in the scientists' understanding and evaluation of different kinds of pluripotent stem cells. Furthermore, we show how the cells are set within a meaningful trajectory of scientific development that serves to justify previous and new research practices and stabilizes stem cell research as a field of scientific investigation. As a result, the article contributes to an understanding of the performative shaping of stem cell research as a contested and uncertain field of research.