Additional Questions from our Interview with Dr. Christine Mummery
Stem Cells Portal (SCP):
Please describe what fascinates you about hESCs.
Christine Mummery (CM):
I guess maybe the idea that you can control what they do if only you can find the right cues. Our developmental biology research has fed into this extremely well and has provided many of the clues on how to make hESC form cardiomyocytes even better. Also sharing the challenges they have presented (just keeping them undifferentiated and able to form cardiomyocytes in the early years) with like minded colleagues.
SCP:
Please comment about your feelings as to the importance of public discussions and lectures regarding ESC research.
CM:
These are very important, particularly to patient groups to ensure expectations and hope are not turned into hype and clinical trials are not initiated through pressure from the desperate. The ISSCR is developing guidelines on this. Public lectures are really important in forming the political climate for science and I think as many people as possible should be aware of developments rather than fear of abstract and incorrect ideas of what scientists do with stem cells. I give quite a lot –science cafes, opening of debates, feminist issues on embryo donation, schools.
SCP:
Are there other ways in which you feel we should be educating and including the public in this important work?
CM:
Going into schools is certainly a way of reaching the public young, not only to educate about stem cells but about science in general. Two colleagues and I actually wrote a popular book in Dutch on stem cells which sold extraordinarily well for such a specialist subject. We find it in libraries and schools and many medics in training seem to find it a quick way to get at the basics. In the Netherlands, public debates are often part of developing new laws and these were also a prelude to the Embryo Law here.
SCP:
Do you believe iPS cells will ultimately be most useful as a model to study human disease, or are they likely to provide patient-specific cell therapies?
CM:
I think for studying human disease they could be great but we still need to see phenotypes. I think that is what people are rushing to do right now to be able to answer that question. Patient specific therapies would seem to me to be likely too expensive. Banking of specific HLA types however, may be easier than with hESC. The viral transfer of pluripotency genes still has to be solved of course but I guess that will not take too long.
SCP:
Do you know if some pharmaceutical companies are already using cardiac-differentiated hESCs to test new drugs?
CM:
Interest has grown now that many societies have moved a little on ethical objections and questions of standardization of culture and differentiation are moving along. GSK has invested heavily in this type of research in the Harvard Stem Cell Institute recently so may be more will follow. Stem Cell for Safer Medicine (SC4SM) in the UK has likewise set up a programme to develop hESC for liver and cardiac drug screening in which Pharma is involved or at least consulted so I think that before long a great deal will be happening. Off target testing is of particular interest as high throughput as well as replacement of animals.
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