[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 10, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H7992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           STEM CELL RESEARCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this summer has been a breath-
taking one for stem cell researchers around the world, but not because 
of embryonic stem cells or cloning. Building on important work 
published last year showing that it is possible to reprogram an adult 
cell back to its primitive embryonic-like state, researchers led by 
Doug Melton at Harvard University have done what was thought impossible 
only a few short years ago. Melton and his team used mice to show that 
it is possible to directly reprogram support cells or exocrine cells of 
the pancreas into insulin-producing beta cells without ever removing 
any cells from the pancreas. Amazingly, it appears that one adult cell 
type has been directly and specifically transformed into another adult 
cell type. In other words, a simple injection of three critical 
reprogramming factors successfully produced insulin-producing beta 
cells and gave patients with diabetes and their families new reason to 
hope in the power of regenerative medicine.
  Melton and his colleagues have brought us one step closer to what 
many have called the ``holy grail'' of regenerative medicine. He has 
shown that, in principle, it is possible to induce the body to heal 
itself by reprogramming one cell type into another. Imagine that; your 
beta cells can no longer make insulin and you are diabetic, perhaps 
because of immune destruction of your insulin-producing cells like in 
Type I diabetes, or perhaps because, like in Type II diabetes, your 
insulin-producing cells have just given up.
  If the work Melton describes can be reproduced in human patients, 
diabetes patients would have to receive a simple injection, maybe two 
or three times, and with that, their pancreas could resume producing 
insulin and they would be cured of their diabetes, no longer requiring 
insulin injections, no longer requiring painful pinpricks.
  Of course, Melton's work is a long way from the clinic. Mice are not 
people, and some of the details must be modified to ensure that the 
injection is safe and won't cause tumors. But this work represents an 
enormous step forward and should be pursued with all of the resources 
NIH can provide.
  This exciting news comes on the heels of another announcement also 
this summer, that researchers from Harvard and Columbia have used the 
reprogramming protocol to create 21 disease-specific stem cell lines 
that will enable researchers to intimately study diseases such as Lou 
Gehrig's disease, Type I diabetes, Parkinson's and muscular dystrophy. 
And it is important to note that this technique also does not require 
the creation, destruction or even the presence of human embryos. These 
cells may not be ready to transplant into humans in the near term, but 
they will be available for research today and for use in screening for 
drugs.
  So in a few short months, the promise of regenerative medicine comes 
closer to reality. Just last year, scientists and cloning advocates 
told us that we had to do human cloning--or at least to create cloned 
human embryos--so that we could accomplish these two goals that were 
deemed essential for moving regenerative medicine forward; creating 
disease-specific cell lines, and regenerating stem cells that could be 
a perfect match for patients affected by these diseases.
  Both of these goals have been accomplished with the reprogramming 
protocol; no cloning, no human embryo stem cells required. To say it 
another way, there is no medical reason to proceed with research into 
cloning human embryos for their stem cells because that science is 
obsolete, it is more cumbersome, it is more expensive. We have a 
better, quicker, easier way to do it.
  Now, I will note that these researchers who were involved with these 
breath-taking breakthroughs have done the politically correct thing and 
have said we still have to move forward with embryo stem cell research 
for compelling reasons. What those compelling reasons are I do not 
know. And I disagree with them. It cannot be denied that research is 
moving forward at a breakneck speed, and the Bush policy is still fully 
in place.
  This work also lends more support for all the adult stem cell work 
that we have been talking about in this body for years. For years, 
embryonic stem cell research advocates have claimed that only embryonic 
stem cells can be transformed this way. Now we have direct evidence 
that it is not necessary. Science is moving beyond the debate. Science 
is taking us in a direction of ethically responsible research.

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