Stem Cell Research

Floor Speech

STEM CELL RESEARCH -- (House of Representatives - September 10, 2008)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this summer has been a breath-taking one for stem cell researchers around the world, but not because of embryonic stem cells or cloning. Building on important work published last year showing that it is possible to reprogram an adult cell back to its primitive embryonic-like state, researchers led by Doug Melton at Harvard University have done what was thought impossible only a few short years ago. Melton and his team used mice to show that it is possible to directly reprogram support cells or exocrine cells of the pancreas into insulin-producing beta cells without ever removing any cells from the pancreas. Amazingly, it appears that one adult cell type has been directly and specifically transformed into another adult cell type. In other words, a simple injection of three critical reprogramming factors successfully produced insulin-producing beta cells and gave patients with diabetes and their families new reason to hope in the power of regenerative medicine.

Melton and his colleagues have brought us one step closer to what many have called the ``holy grail'' of regenerative medicine. He has shown that, in principle, it is possible to induce the body to heal itself by reprogramming one cell type into another. Imagine that; your beta cells can no longer make insulin and you are diabetic, perhaps because of immune destruction of your insulin-producing cells like in Type I diabetes, or perhaps because, like in Type II diabetes, your insulin-producing cells have just given up.

If the work Melton describes can be reproduced in human patients, diabetes patients would have to receive a simple injection, maybe two or three times, and with that, their pancreas could resume producing insulin and they would be cured of their diabetes, no longer requiring insulin injections, no longer requiring painful pinpricks.

Of course, Melton's work is a long way from the clinic. Mice are not people, and some of the details must be modified to ensure that the injection is safe and won't cause tumors. But this work represents an enormous step forward and should be pursued with all of the resources NIH can provide.

This exciting news comes on the heels of another announcement also this summer, that researchers from Harvard and Columbia have used the reprogramming protocol to create 21 disease-specific stem cell lines that will enable researchers to intimately study diseases such as Lou Gehrig's disease, Type I diabetes, Parkinson's and muscular dystrophy. And it is important to note that this technique also does not require the creation, destruction or even the presence of human embryos. These cells may not be ready to transplant into humans in the near term, but they will be available for research today and for use in screening for drugs.

So in a few short months, the promise of regenerative medicine comes closer to reality. Just last year, scientists and cloning advocates told us that we had to do human cloning--or at least to create cloned human embryos--so that we could accomplish these two goals that were deemed essential for moving regenerative medicine forward; creating disease-specific cell lines, and regenerating stem cells that could be a perfect match for patients affected by these diseases.

Both of these goals have been accomplished with the reprogramming protocol; no cloning, no human embryo stem cells required. To say it another way, there is no medical reason to proceed with research into cloning human embryos for their stem cells because that science is obsolete, it is more cumbersome, it is more expensive. We have a better, quicker, easier way to do it.

Now, I will note that these researchers who were involved with these breath-taking breakthroughs have done the politically correct thing and have said we still have to move forward with embryo stem cell research for compelling reasons. What those compelling reasons are I do not know. And I disagree with them. It cannot be denied that research is moving forward at a breakneck speed, and the Bush policy is still fully in place.

This work also lends more support for all the adult stem cell work that we have been talking about in this body for years. For years, embryonic stem cell research advocates have claimed that only embryonic stem cells can be transformed this way. Now we have direct evidence that it is not necessary. Science is moving beyond the debate. Science is taking us in a direction of ethically responsible research.

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