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September 7, 2001/Elul 19, 5761, Vol. 53, No.48
Technion hopes for stem cell funding
JESSICA STEINBERG
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - As Congress debates the ethics of federal funding for stem cell research, scientists at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology hope some of the money will be headed their way.
Federal funding would be a potential boon for Technion researchers, who have spent three years studying the beneficial stem cells, the building blocks for all human tissue.
"Our biggest problem in Israel is funding for the basic research," said Dr. Lior Gepstein, a cardiologist on the Technion research team. "If NIH will help and if there's more work done worldwide, we have a bigger chance for discovering something than if it's just Lior in the Technion."
NIH, the National Institutes of Health, identified 64 stem cell lines in Israel, the United States, Australia, India and Sweden that met President Bush's criteria of developing colonies of existing human embryonic stem cells.
Israel is at the end of the pack, with four identified stem cell lines.
Embryonic stem cells have a unique ability to renew themselves and develop into specialized cell types in the body. Scientists hope to use them to produce healthy tissue for people with debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes.
At the Technion in Haifa, Israeli scientists have been researching stem cell applications for curing diabetes and heart disease.
Dr. Karl Skorecki, a nephrologist who directs the Rappaport Family Institute for Medical Research at Technion, has been working on developing stem cells to replace pancreatic cells that produce insulin, which diabetics lack.
In July, Skorecki's team announced that the stem cells they had been growing in a petri dish displayed characteristics of the beta cells of the pancreas. Now his research team needs to develop the requisite number of beta cells and ensure they don't "poop out" while growing, he said.
Another team of Technion scientists at the Cardiovascular Research Laboratory succeeded in growing heart cells from stem cells that have electric and mechanical characteristics of young heart tissue.
Both Technion teams face a long research processes that may never succeed, the scientists cautioned. But federal funding from the United States would allow other research groups to compete, fueling intense global activity and progress, Skorecki said.
U.S. funding would also make their lives "more comfortable regarding ethical issues," Itskovits added.
Stem cells come from discarded human embryos, a sticking point for right-to-lifers. From Israel's standpoint, Jewish law allows embryos to be destroyed if the research has the potential to benefit society.
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