As eager researchers across the country scramble to get their hands on one or more of the 64 stem cell lines allowed federal funds in August, other researchers are questioning what will happen when the 64 run out.
While the U.S. prohibits federal money for research on new human embryos – a major stem cell source – Britain allows scientists to use, create and even clone embryos for therapeutic use. Britain’s more lenient stem-cell laws have U.S. researchers worried that top American stem cell scientists will pick-up and move across the Atlantic in a reverse “brain drain.” The original brain drain occurred when European scientists, such as Albert Einstein and Wernher Von Braun, fled to the U.S. during and after World War II.
One leading stem cell researcher already made the move. Roger Pedersen announced in June that he was leaving his post at University of California-San Francisco for a position at Cambridge University in England, citing an increasingly unfriendly political climate toward his embryo research in the United States.
Rex Chisholm, director of NU’s Center for Genetic Medicine, sympathizes with Pedersen’s decision to seek research support outside the U.S. “Most scientists do what they do because they’re driven to understand a particular disease or a therapy,” he said. “If you’re really driven and you aren’t allowed to do the work you are passionate about, you start looking for other places to work.”
Chisholm likens the Bush administration’s limit of 64 stem cell lines to telling Henry Ford at the turn of the century that he is only allowed to build the Model T. “Everyone would have to drive a Model T, and we wouldn’t be able to take advantage of all of the great innovations in engineering that happened after the Model T. It just doesn’t make any sense,” Chisholm said.
Though he said he understands Pedersen’s move to Britain, he doesn’t foresee a mass exodus of American stem-cell researchers.
Chisholm said some researchers will move to Britain because of opportunities for grants, but he believes that NU will not face such losses.
Instead, Chisholm worries about other effects of government regulations on stem cell research, such as losing science students from other countries.
“There are a large number of life sciences students from China in the U.S., and that’s because they saw education opportunities here that they don’t have at home,” he said. “If we aren’t able to do certain kinds of research, they just won’t come here anymore.”
