Why will more tax payer money be wasted on ESC research in 2009?

There are limited tax-payer dollars for medical research, so for the sake of those who at the greatest need, we should spend the money where we will get more bang for our buck.  Better treatments, faster.  If some scientist wants money for "cutting-edge" research that will not result in "cures" for decades, then let him or her get venture capital.  When it comes to the money earned by hardworking Americans, the science better have the promise of treating patients. 

Embryonic stem cells are showing no evidence that they will be used to treat anyone.  A new study shows that because ESCs are so undifferentiated, it is currently impossible to tell the difference between healthy embryonic stem cells and those that harbor genetic abnormalities.  From the Nature Niche Stem cell blog:

Here's a sneak peek at just one of the research highlights that will appear on Nature Reports Stem Cells over the next few days.

Are ruddy cheeks a sign of health or a symptom of sickness? New work from Mickie Bhatia and colleagues at McMaster University suggests that, when it comes to embryonic stem cells, the very qualities researchers use to pick out a robust cell line may in fact be bestowed by precancerous transformations. “Current measurements are not capable of distinguishing the difference between great stem cells and cancer stem cells in vitro,” says Bhatia.

But measurements may improve you say?  And we will be able to tell healthy ESC from unhealthy ones.  Right?  Maybe not:

Though Bhatia’s team did not show that the genetic abnormalities caused the changes in the cells’ behavior, he says, other specific recurrent genetic lesions suggest that changes at certain loci somehow provide an advantage for altered cells to grow in culture. One of the “major challenges to the field” is developing techniques that can detect rare, abnormal cells, particularly if the transformations are not due to changes in gene sequence.

Also important, he says, is figuring out just how and when such cells might be dangerous. “Ultimately it may be difficult or impossible to rule out with certainty that a given culture is totally free of abnormal cells.”

So it may be impossible to ensure that ESC cultures have only healthy cells?  This means that treating patients with ESC cultures is also "difficult or impossible."  As a taxpayer, I do not want my money going to fund research that is "difficult or impossible."  You would think our elected officials would feel the same.

But what about disease progression and drug discovery research?  Scientists insist that even if ESCs will never treat patients, funding ESC research is critical so they can learn about how the disease progresses and for experiments into new drug therapies.  But induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) that do not require human eggs or embryos (which are expensive or hard to get), are quickly making ESCs irrelevant in this area as well.  From the Wisconsin State Journal:

A year after University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson announced a new type of human embryonic stem cells, campus researchers have realized a major promise of the new cells: replicating a disease in a lab dish.

A team led by neuroscientist Clive Svendsen used the new stem cells to create a model of spinal muscular atrophy, the most common genetic cause of infant mortality. Researchers at Harvard University and elsewhere have used the cells to simulate other diseases, but Svendsen is the first to do so and show how a disease process works, said a prominent scientist in the field.

"They have gone a step further," Christopher Henderson of Columbia University said of Svendsen and his colleagues, including Allison Ebert. "It's highly promising."

A similar development this summer by Henderson and a Harvard researcher, involving Lou Gehrig's disease, was named the No. 1 medical breakthrough of the year by Time magazine.

"We at last have a model for a neurodegenerative disease in a dish," Svenden said. "This might be a poster child for other genetically inherited diseases."

This article goes on to talk about the advantages of iPS cells:

Scientists say iPS cells carry two significant advantages over regular embryonic stem cells. No embryos are destroyed or even used to create the cells, offering a potential solution to an ethical dilemma that has plagued the field. And since the cells are crafted from a donor's skin cells, they can be genetically matched to patients, reducing the risk of immune system rejection of potential therapies developed from the cells.

No human eggs, no human embryos AND a genetic match without human cloning!  Sounds like a total no-brainer to me.

And how are iPS cells progressing?  Is the progress painfully slow as with human cloning and ESC research?:

With the UW-Madison cell line and other iPS cell models for diseases — including those for Parkinson's, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and other conditions, created by the Harvard reseachers — stem-cell research seems to be progressing faster than before, said Henderson of Columbia.

"This field is moving very quickly now," he said.

So please tell me again why President Elect Obama wants to throw more of our hard earned money at unethical human cloning and ESC research when there are better alternatives?  It makes absolutely NO SENSE!!!!!

Especially when there are articles about ethical stem cell research like this one practically everyday:

Scientists have tricked bone marrow into releasing extra adult stem cells into the bloodstream, a technique that they hope could one day be used to repair heart damage or mend a broken bone, in a new study published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell....

When a person has a disease or an injury, the bone marrow mobilises different types of stem cells to help repair and regenerate tissue. The new research, by researchers from Imperial College London, shows that it may be possible to boost the body's ability to repair itself and speed up repair, by using different new drug combinations to put the bone marrow into a state of 'red alert' and send specific kinds of stem cells into action.

So in 2009, I reissue my challenge to those who think ESC research is essential.  ESC research is still legal in America. It is also legal to conduct therapeutic cloning in most states.  Companies and universities are free to create and destroy embryos all day long for ESC research.

If you want to support embryo-destructive research, then reach for your checkbook and write a check.  You are free to do so.  I am sure lots of universities and private companies working with embryonic stem cells would be prefer to receive your donation than have to apply to the federal government for funds.  Your donation may even be tax deductible.   

Just do not ask me, and millions of Americans like me, to pay for research that we find morally repugnant that is likely going nowhere.