Thalasar Ventures

I have been watching the right side of the blogosphere with a great deal of amusement and not a little bit of anger over the ad Michael J. Fox has done for Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Part of the problem is that most Americans have NO idea how basic science and scientific research is done. As a result we see people consistently parade around the idea, “that if embroynic stem cell have any value, private industry would be working with them.”

This particular idea seems to run rampant in the right side of the blogosphere. This view is problematic for several reasons. The problem of course is that pharmaceutical companies rarely fund basic science. Basic science in a field is often time consuming and filled with dead ends. A pharmaceutical company is focused on finding a treatment and getting the drug through the FDA’s clinical trials – spending 20 years on something and then finding it is a dead end is the kiss of death for a pharma. At this point we do not know enough about embroynic stem cells to even begin see a path to treatment. For many people on the right side of the blogosphere this is a sure sign that we shouldn’t invest any time in it. Here’s the problem unless we invest in the basic science we will never know the value of embroynic stem cells. If looked at with an eye to quarterly profit reports – basic science will never get done.
A fair number of commentators have cited a recented study by that embroynic stems cell can cause tumors. What I find amusing is that they completely neglect to mention that the stem cells also CURED THE PARKINSONS! As the scientist notes, “None of the cells growing out of control were cancerous tumours. But as Dr. Goldman pointed out, “In the brain, nothing’s benign.” So in other words they aren’t even tumors!
As most of these commentators are not scientists, they are also unaware that rats are pretty susceptible to tumors – which is one of the reasons they are often used in research. So the reasearch show promise. But once again we are at the basic science stage. To put it in Rumsfieldian terms, “We don’t know what we don’t know.” A researcher in the field says this, “For Mick Bhatia, scientific director of the Cancer and Stem Cell Research Institute at McMaster University, it’s a bit of déjà vu. In 2004, he succeeded in growing human blood cells from embryonic stem cells but found transplanting them into mice wasn’t simple.
“I pushed the program back,” Dr. Bhatia said. “We need to do more on the basic biology.”
Another amusing thing about this recently cited study is of course that many of the right wing commentators claim Mr. Fox has “been duped” about the promise of embryonic stem cells. That claim is silly. Mr. Fox’s foundation devoted to Parkinsons is one of the larger foundations devoted to study of the disease. He undoubtedly knows more about the state of the research than Joe Blogger who suddenly posts an opinion on the matter.
Basic science research has given us some great things – the Internet, vaccines, cell phones etc (yes cell phones were an outgrowth of basic science research). Even Google started as research grant by the NSF. When California passed it’s stem cell initiative, it wasn’t that Californians’ “hated President Bush,” its that they recognized that basic science needs to be done in order to understand what is and what isn’t possible. Given the focus on the California economy on technology, getting ahead in this particular field is incredibly important and all the research and basic science the initiative will pay for will benefit California (and by proxy American companies).
Another often quoted “fact” is that the “the President’s executive order doesn’t ban research. It just means that federal dollars cannot be used for it.” This is effectively a ban for several reasons. First off it means that federal dollars cannot be used at all in a facilty doing this research. So let’s say you have a university doing research into stem cells – this means that the facilty itself must be completely seperate from any facilty where research is being done with federal dollars. So the University must either build a new facility or segregate researchers into difference facilities. No federal dollars means no federal dollars. So if federal dollars are used for the heating bill in the building – you cannot use the building for embroynic stem cell research. You cannot borrow a test tube, notebook or any equipment that has been purchased even in part with federal dollars. So this makes it very very difficult to do research in this field.
Eventually the dollars in basic research pay off, even if they tell us were are barking up the wrong tree. While it often seems expensive, the value of basic science research is that it lifts all boats. US companies can take this basic knowledge and use it to develop treatment options. Pharmaceutical companies reecognize the value of basic research – it’s my hope the average American does as well.
For those of you wanting to know more – I suggest you read up and get a few books on stem cells and their biology