Suddenly, 64 stem cell lines.

Abstract

WASHINGTON—After word of President George W. Bush’s decision to allow federal funding for established embryonic stem cells leaked to the media early last month, one surprise was still left: at least 60 of the cell lines exist, Bush said on August 9. But less than a dozen had been announced, leading top researchers to question the newfound cells’ viability and even their existence. It turns out that behind the scenes, Lana Skirboll, PhD, director of science policy at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was canvassing the world. “We looked far and wide,” she said at a news conference the day after the president’s announcement. Most of the newly disclosed lines originated at private companies, all of which were apparently better at keeping secrets than Bush’s staff. Months earlier, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson had directed Skirboll and NIH Acting Director Ruth Kirschstein, MD, to take a global inventory as part of an overall scientific review. The search proved fruitful, uncovering coveted cultures in Australia, India, Israel, and Sweden. All the lines conform to Bush’s guidelines, said Skirboll, because the source embryos had been by-products of in vitro fertilization, freely donated. But the press conference audience remained wary; many reporters had just spoken with scientists who thought that “60” dropped out of the sky. Thompson and Skirboll explained how they arrived at the figure a half dozen times before Thompson finally became testy. “All of us were surprised by the number of cell lines,” he said, pointing to the next raised hand. Concerns about the quality of the cells also surfaced in the days following the announcement— concerns that have yet to be quelled. In fact, none of the cells have been examined by NIH staff; instead, Skirboll arrived at “60” via a telephone census. On August 27, federal health officials announced that 10 companies and research laboratories have human embryonic stem cell lines that meet Bush’s criteria. The firms, location, and number of lines are as follows: BresaGen Inc, Athens, Ga, 4; CyThera Inc, San Diego, 9; Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, 5; Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 6; National Center for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India, 3; Reliance Life Sciences, Mumbai, India, 7; Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, 4; University of California, San Francisco, 2; Goteborg University, Goteborg, Sweden, 19; and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Madison, 5. Skirboll emphasized on August 10 that all the companies are eager to provide cells to NIH-funded researchers. And, she added, the NIH would work as a facilitator, joining researchers to suppliers after the companies sorted through intellectual property details. AtthesametimeSkirbollspoke,Geron Inc, Menlo Park, Calif, was holding its own press conference. With a record of fundingembryonic stemcellworksince 1995,PresidentandChiefExecutiveOfficerThomasOkarma,MD,PhD,pitched his company as the field’s leader. Three of Geron’s cell lines, each studied for 2 years or more, will become the “gold standard,” said Okarma. He went on to stake wider claims, saying that Geron held US rights for the methods of deriving and culturing human stem cells and even rights to the cells themselves. But in fact, WiCell, funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, owns the key US patents on the