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The
bio-innovation conference: where biotechnology and intellectual
property meet
Maine Science and Technology Foundation
June 27, 2002
DAY
ONE
"Charting
the Biotechnology Frontier: The Story Behind the First
Human Cloned Embryo"
Michael
West, Ph.D., Advanced Cell Technology, Worcester, MA
Michael
West, president and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology,
the first company to report cloning a human embryo,
began research into human cloning and embryonic stem
cells because he wanted to treat symptoms of aging.
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| Dr.
Michael West |
"Aging
is wear and tear," said West, likening human bodies
to cars, which require replacement parts. He said that
biology is full of surprises, "and how it was wrong
in the case of aging… is that there is an immortal basis
to life." Using examples from mythology and science,
West described ways of looking at biology that acknowledge
bodies as vehicles that carry immortal cells to new
generations.
"As
I entered the field of medical research, I was interested
in the biology of aging. Why is it that our body cells
age?" said West. That question led West to investigate
how germ-lines (DNA passed from generation to generation)
proliferate indefinitely and to find out if we can "learn
lessons from that to help treat the scourges of aging."
West also began studying aging cells in lab dishes.
West
described his research at his first company, Geron,
where in the late 1980s he worked with the gene that
produces telomerase, an enzyme that enables cells to
divide indefinitely. With five years and venture capital
investments of around $30 million, West and his team
were able to create immortal human cells in the lab.
But
"having a gene doesn't mean you have a medicine," said
West. Although he said it's relatively easy to make
immortal cells in a dish, no current technology can
deliver the genes to cells in a human body.
West
continued his search, and stem cells became his next
stop. "The human embryonic stem cell and the embryonic
germ cell were both isolated and reported in 1998 and
caused a stir for two reasons," according to West. The
first reason, he said, is that the cells are "magic
in a dish," which can create young heart, cartilage,
bone, and other tissues.
The
second reason for the stir, West said, is that using
human embryos created controversy. He believes that
embryonic stem cells have more power to create a variety
of body tissues than do adult stem cells. West cited
several reasons why he supports using human embryos
for the research, including his belief that life begins
two weeks after conception, when embryos individuate.
West
also discussed his work cloning human embryos at ACT
to produce embryonic stem cells that could grow into
tissues to be transplanted into patients to treat diseases.
West
declined to predict the outcome of debates in the U.S.
Senate about human cloning, but said the goal of his
research is to use his "small lifetime on the planet
to make the world a better place."
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