Since their introduction to the world, the possibilities of the use of stem cells to treat diseases has left people in awe. Their potential to treat diseases that currently have no cure make many open to the idea of researching stem cells to figure out how to use them to our advantage. Unfortunately, the matter of obtaining and using these cells is not that simple. Previously, the only way to obtain these unprogrammed cells was by collecting them from fetuses, since the cells usually become programmed for a certain function throughout one’s life. This mode of obtaining the cells is very controversial, and was deemed too unethical to use. However, new techniques have developed over the last two decades to take these cells from adults without much trouble at all. Even with this advancement, many still view the use of these cells as unethical because of their controversial beginning, and funding for research is not at the level one would expect for such a promising topic. This divide has the science community asking one big question, should stem cells be allowed to be obtained for research, then used to help treat applicable diseases? Funding for stem cell research should be increased due to the new, far less controversial methods of obtaining the cells, the potential that they have to treat diseases, and also because of their ability to simulate the human body, allowing for faster clinical trials of new drugs being released to the market. 

It is important to understand exactly what stem cells are, and why they must be obtained using specific methods. Stem cells are “unspecialized cells capable of renewing themselves through cell division” and “under certain physiological or experimental conditions, the can be induced to become tissue- or organ-specific cells with special functions” (Introduction: What are stem cells, and why are they important?). This means that stem cells have no function, but can be programmed to become almost any type of cell in the body, and then carry out the tasks that a cell of that type would normally perform. Everybody starts out with their own cache of stem cells, but over one’s lifetime, these cells are naturally called upon to be utilized for a function, decreasing the amount left until none remain. Eventually there will be so few left, that when a certain body part or function is damaged, it cannot be healed. This is why fetuses were so vital for stem cell research, since they had been our only way to obtain these cells. Many people opposed this method, and it halted research on the topic for years.

The largest opposition to the use of embryos came from the Bush administration in the early 2000’s. In a speech given by President Bush on August 9th, 2001, President Bush outlined his mindset when it came to stem cells. He stated that “Research on embryonic stem cells raises profound ethical questions, because extracting the stem cell destroys the embryo, and thus destroys its potential for life. Like a snowflake, each of these embryos is unique, with the unique genetic potential of an individual human being” and also “in recent weeks, we learned that scientists have created human embryos in test tubes solely to experiment on them. This is deeply troubling and a warning sign that should prompt all of us to think through these issues very carefully” (CNN). It was clear that President Bush did not believe that stem cells should be allowed to be researched. It was not until later, however, that he acted on these beliefs. In 2006, he vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would have allowed the research of embryonic stem cells if the embryos were donated without any compensation and if they would never be implanted into a woman and would be otherwise discarded (Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005). The final act that Bush passed against the research of stem cells was in 2007, when he passed Executive Order 13455, which cut off governmental funding for embryonic stem cell research. Without grants from the government, research had to be privately funded, but because of the ethical concerns surrounding the use of embryonic cells, that funding was hard to come by. Researchers depended on grants given by the government, and without that money, research was all but stopped. Luckily, only two years later on March 9th, 2009, President Obama revoked Executive Order 13455 and removed most of the barriers set forth by the Bush administration. Within a decade, researchers were able to find new ways of obtaining these cells.  

It was previously thought that embryonic stem cells were the most effective type of stem cell and could be used for the largest amount of treatments. However, due to increased research efforts, scientists have now found a method to take normal human skin cells, and reprogram them back into stem cells that are just as effective in treatments as embryonic stem cells. A team of researchers at UCLA were able to find how to reprogram these skin cells by adding “four transcription factors to mouse skin cells and mapping the transcription factors’ interaction with the cells’ DNA. This process identified the DNA locations that change cell identity and provided unique insights into how those DNA locations have this effect on the cells… Taking their work a step further, the researchers used the data to predict which additional transcription factors might boost the cell reprogramming process and subsequently added a fifth transcription factor to the mouse skin cells. This new combination of factors more effectively suppressed the tissue-specific cell’s identity, which accelerated and enhanced the transition to pluripotency and increased the efficiency of the cell reprogramming process by a hundredfold” (UCLA Newsroom). These manipulated cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells for short, and in some cases, these cells have been proven to have more desirable traits than embryonic stem cells. A team of researchers looked at how preparing cultured iPS cells in different ways effected the growth and function of the cell. They found that iPS cells have more cell expansion when differentiating than embryonic stem cells do (Liu, Zhou and Zhang). This means that iPS cultures can grow to the desired amount faster than embryonic cells can. These developments take away almost all the ethical concerns surrounding stem cells and even prove that iPS cells can be more effective than embryonic stem cells. 

The most common way as of now to donate stem cells is by donating bone marrow through a one to two hour outpatient procedure where “the doctor makes several small punctures in the skin over the pelvic bone, a special needle attached to a syringe is inserted through these punctures and into the bone marrow, then the doctor draws marrow and blood out of the bone through the syringe. This process is repeated until enough stem cells are collected for the transplant” (Canadian Cancer Society). The only side effect of this operation is that the patient’s hip area may be sore for a couple of days, but medications can be prescribed to help. (Canadian Cancer Society). Although this is still the most common method used to donate stem cells, methods as simple as donating a skin biopsy are being tested and have promising results. The ease of donation has caught the eye of many for its limited ethical concerns.

One landmark moment for researchers was when the Vatican approved the use of iPS cells, stating that they “should not pose the “ethical problems” associated with the use of embryos” and “as of now we consider this process legitimate, pending further investigation” (New York Times). This was a victory for those who support the use of stem cells because the Catholic Church is often associated as the main pro-life supporters. Since the use of embryonic stem cells goes against pro-life beliefs, it was not expected for the church to back the use of stem cells whether they were embryonic or derived from the skin. The fact that the Vatican supports the use of iPS cells shows that the ethical concerns for using stem cells have dissipated. 

Another major reason that funding for stem cells should be increased is because of their ability to treat diseases that previously had no cure. One example of this is healing damaged retinal cells in the eye. Retinal cells are vital to eye sight and under normal conditions, these cells cannot self-replicate once damaged. This means that even the slightest change to the cell is permanent, and can lead to the loss of eye sight. In an interview conducted by the New York Times, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a leader in stem cell research described a surgical success where doctors took iPS cells and differentiated them to become retinal cells. In his interview, he detailed the cell’s success, stating “They took skin cells from a 70-year-old patient and derived iPS cells from them. They then differentiated the stem cells (directed them “back down” the normal developmental path) to become adult retinal cells. These were transplanted into the patient’s eye to treat the disease. That was a huge success. She sees much brighter now” (New York Times). This is a major achievement, and proves that stem cells have a real purpose in the medical field. This gave researchers distinctive proof that iPS cells could fix otherwise permanent damage. As of right now, only around ten diseases can be treated through the use of iPS cells. These diseases include Parkinson’s, heart and liver failure, spinal cord injuries, and some blood disorders (New York Times). The hope of researchers is that one day many more diseases and disorders can be treated, but the only way that this can happen is if funding for research continues to be increased. 

Another exciting feature of stem cell therapy is the fact that each treatment can be personalized to a patient. This method is very useful when it comes to cancer treatments. Not every cancer treatment works the same way for each patient, so doctors can take some of the cancerous cells and replicate them until there is a big enough sample to test against multiple treatments. Once an effective treatment is found, it can be used on the patient to cure them. Authors Geoffrey Ginsburg and Huntington Willard describe this type of treatment in their book, Genomic and Personalized Medicine: Vol. 1, stating “induced pluripotent stem cell technology affords numerous unprecedented opportunities for understanding basic biology and disease mechanisms, ranging from personalized in vitro (cultured outside of the body) models of disease to autologous cell therapy in patient” (Ginsburg and Willard). They found that not only is this method useful for treatment of cancers, but also for other diseases at the cellular level. This personalized medicine is why diseases like Parkinson’s and Heart or Liver failure can be cured using iPS cells.  Again, more research needs to be conducted upon this method of cellular therapy, however, researchers believe that other disabilities such as blindness can also be cured. Again, this research depends on the funding available to the program. Clearly, great opportunities for treatments are available, there just needs to be adequate funding to be able to discover how to successfully program the cell to carry out the desired function.

The final reason that funding for stem cells should be increased is often the most overlooked. Since stem cells can be programmed to become any body part, they can be used to model any organ to be tested on by drugs that are in clinical trials. Tissue Engineer Nina Tandon explained this process in her Ted Talk Could Tissue Engineering Mean Personalized Medicine? She explained that the cost of creating a new drug and getting it through lab testing, animal testing, and clinical trials cost upwards of $1 Billion more often than not, not to mention that it could take a full decade to get through that process. However, with the use of stem cells functioning as complete systems in the body, drugs can accurately be tested and the results would replicate the exact effect on the organ. Tandon notes in her lecture that this still is not one hundred percent accurate because “a drug for the heart can get metabolized in the liver, and some of the byproducts may be stored in the fat” (Tandon). As of now each test can only be run on one organ, but Tandon also notes that the field is evolving, and soon models of the entire ecosystem of the body, complete with organ systems capable of testing how a drug taken for blood pressure might affect the liver, or how antidepressants could affect the heart will be possible to create. She also notes that the systems are “hard to build, but we’re just starting to be able to get there” (Tandon). This way to test drugs would be very significant to the medical community. What used to cost a billion dollars and take almost ten years to create would now be far cheaper, and take significantly less time to test, allowing for more effective drugs to be released to the market faster than ever before. This would clearly be beneficial to both the public and the pharmaceutical companies. All that is needed to reach this milestone is a little more research on how to connect the organ systems so they work together like they do in a body. Increased funding would do nothing but help to speed up this research.

The government should increase the budget and number of grants given for iPS stem cell research because of their lack of ethical concerns, ability to cure diseases that were previously untreatable, and because of the research opportunity they possess to cut costs and speed up the development of new medicines attempting to make it to market. What was once an ethical dilemma of getting stem cells from an embryo has now become as easy as getting a skin biopsy to donate stem cells that work just as good if not better in treatments. Now, diseases that could not be treated suddenly have working solutions. Treatments are able to be personalized to each patient’s specific needs. No longer will a patient have to risk trying multiple medicines hoping that the next one would work. Now they can get a proven solution to their problem without risking the side effects of a medication that would not even help them out in the long run. Not only can stem cells be used to treat diseases, but they also can be used to model complete biological systems. These systems can be used in drug testing to show exactly how a drug would affect each and every square inch of a body. It is clear that stem cells will be an important part of medicine moving to the future. Although a lot of their uses seem science-fiction or too good to be true, they are real, and they are achievable. All that we have to do is fund the research opportunities moving forward, and in no time, this futuristic concept will become a feasible reality for all.
