John D. Gearhart, Ph.D., and bioethicist Ruth Faden, Ph.D., M.P.H., say the "Ethics and Cell Engineering: The Next Generation" project builds on their longstanding informal partnership dedicated to carefully navigating the frontiers of human developmental biology.

"We want to take these issues to a relatively mature level of analysis before they become political footballs, so as to provide the public, policymakers and the scientific community with a reasoned backdrop for the decisions they will inevitably face," says Faden, the Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics at Hopkins and executive director of the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute of The Johns Hopkins University.

In the first 18 months of the project, invited experts in genetics, transplantation, ethics, stem cell science and law will meet to share their views on the need for and possible nature of criteria for selecting stem cell lines from which medical therapies would ultimately be developed.

Issues include questions of safety, transplant rejection, privacy, genetic diversity and public access, says Faden.

"The dilemma in this case boils down to what might be needed to ensure sufficient, safe stem cells for future potential therapies from which all of us can benefit," adds Gearhart, whose lab discovered human embryonic germ cells, a type of all-purpose stem cell derived from fetal tissue. "For example, right now we don't know if the immune profile of the cells would need to match the recipient if used as a medical therapy, but it's possible and even likely, and that would probably require more cell lines than we have now."

The project represents the first activity of the Bioethics Institute's newly created Program in Cellular Engineering, Ethics and Public Policy. The program provides the infrastructure for considering policy options and issues related to research with and potential medical use of reprogrammed human cells.

"The idea is to anticipate the issues that will arise as research with embryonic and adult stem cells advances so we can avoid having to take a reactionary stance," says Faden.

According to their website, The Greenwall Foundation, located in New York City, is an independent foundation created in 1949 by Frank and Anna Greenwall. Its grant-making is restricted to three program areas: bioethics, arts and humanities, and education. - By Joanna Downer

[Contact: Joanna Downer]

25-Jun-2002