Stem cell scientists urge MEPs not to cut funding for human embryo research

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/15/stem-cell-scientists-human-embryo-research

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Leading scientists, institutions and patient groups have appealed to the European parliament not to heed the calls of anti-abortion campaigners who want to cut off funding for human embryonic stem cell research.

Such research could lead to treatments and cures for a range of devastating diseases, but a vote to stop the use of public funds for research involving human embryos would seriously hamper progress, the scientists say.

"The European parliament must send a clear sign that it recognises the importance of embryonic stem cell research," said Sir Mark Walport, the director of the Wellcome Trust in London, one of the signatories to a joint statement expressing concern that MEPs may shortly vote to exclude embryonic stem cells from Horizon 2020, its programme for research and innovation for the next six years.

"While the amount of funding allocated to such research under Horizon 2020 is likely to be only a small portion of the overall budget, to close down such a vital avenue of research would be a massive blow to European science. It will significantly set back research into very serious diseases including Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis and is likely to cost European research its competitive advantage," said Walport.

The Association of Medical Research Charities, British Heart Foundation, European Genetic Alliances' Network, Medical Research Council and Parkinson's UK have also signed the statement, which has been sent to MEPs with an interest in science and medicine and related parliamentary committees.

"Stem cell research holds a great deal of promise for patients suffering from a broad range of incurable diseases," said Professor Sir John Savill, the chief executive of the Medical Research Council. "It's absolutely vital that European commission funding for this research is maintained. European scientists are leading the way in this field and the first clinical trial of a human embryonic stem cell treatment for a form of blindness has recently received regulatory approval in the UK. To derail such promising science based on the objections of a minority of member states, who do not wish their scientists to carry out this research, would be unwise and unfair, particularly to patients."

Critics of the research say it is not necessary to use human embryos, arguing that what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells can now be made from adult skin cells, which have the added advantage of not being rejected if they are from the patient's own body.

Scientists such as Professor Austin Smith, the head of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at Cambridge University, said the cost of such tailor-made treatment would be exorbitant and only embryonic stem cells, produced in great quantities, could lead to affordable treatments.

Work on embryos is fundamental to understanding stem cells, said Professor Peter Weissberg, the medical director at the British Heart Foundation. "Any scaling back of the EU's investment would send out a dangerous message that could seriously damage this area of research in Europe, to the detriment of patients in the future," he said.

"The advances in some of the most promising types of stem cell research in recent years, for example the ability to turn adult skin cells into heart cells, have only been possible through the knowledge gained from embryonic stem cell research. It's only by understanding the molecular processes by which embryonic stem cells become heart cells that we can hope to be able to coax other cells to help repair a damaged heart - an approach which may one day revolutionise treatments for heart patients."