Adult stem-cell research deserves more attention

This article was inaccurate and deficient in several aspects. First, there was no mention of recent and ongoing clinical successes with adult stem cells. In the US alone there are currently 4,652 clinical trials underway with adult stem cells and none with embryonic stem cells.

Second, there was no mention of the incredible breakthrough in reprogramming adult cells to regress and have the properties of embryonic stem cells. In October 2012 British researcher John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan won the Nobel Prize for discovering that mature, specialised cells of the body can be reprogrammed as stem cells – a discovery that scientists hope to turn into new treatments. One of the driving forces for this discovery was Yamanaka’s realisation that his daughter was once an embryo like those destroyed in embryonic stem-cell research.  

The Nobel Prize was awarded just six years after Yamanaka’s research provided the key to reprogramming adult cells. Even Ian Wilmut, who cloned the sheep Dolly, cited this research in abandoning embryonic stem-cell research and thus avoiding the ethical baggage associated with it.  

Lastly, the term “fertilised egg” is a misnomer. A fertilised egg only exists at the instant of fertilisation of an egg by a sperm. At that time, the new entity begins reprogramming and remodelling into a self-developing human being with a full genetic base. On its first day, that human embryo is termed a zygote. Later, that human being is killed for its embryonic stem cells.  We were all at that same stage in our early development, as Yamanaka realised.

AF Kertz

Bangkok