haifa | When professor Joseph Itskovitz-Eldor recounts the development of the first human embryonic stem-cell lines in November 1998, his excitement is still palpable. He was, after all, involved firsthand.
“This was a major breakthrough,” says Itskovitz-Eldor of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s Rambam Medical Center. A collaborator on the University of Wisconsin-based project, he still recalls “a very intense race, worldwide, to achieve the first embryonic human stem cells.”
Since then, in Haifa alone, where he is based, “we derived nine-plus lines” — five from Wisconsin, four from Israel, he says. “We have actually one of the largest collections of [U.S. National Institutes of Health]-approved lines.”
As research forges ahead, Itskovitz-Eldor and his colleagues at Technion are hard at work on practical applications for human stem cells. They are striving to produce unique cell lines, such as those carrying genetic defects, that may aid in the study of specific diseases. And they are trying to perfect differentiated lines that might lead, say, to use in building new cartilage or other types of tissues.
They have a keen interest in the cardiovascular potential of stem cells. “Maybe it will be possible to use cells for a biological pacemaker,” he says.
They are particularly pursuing the vascular application of stem cells, making blood vessels in vitro. “With tissue engineering,” he explains, “you could make small blood vessels useful for transplantation.” In a coronary bypass procedure, for example, rather than taking vessels from other parts of a patient’s body, as is currently done, vessels could be grown in the lab for just such use. Experiments are still in the beginning stages. “We are trying to make well-defined, vascular cells that can be transplanted into animals” for study, says Itskovitz-Eldor.
He also has high hopes that lab studies may yield clues in disease prevention, such as how to inhibit and block the development of cancer.
Itskovitz-Eldor and his Technion colleagues often collaborate with other researchers in Israel and throughout the world, and they rely on funding beyond what Technion can provide. NIH grants, for example, allow for expanded research into growing blood vessel cells, for developing joint-education programs with NIH in stem cell technology, and for infrastructure to house stem-cell research.
The Israeli government also plows funds into stem-cell projects.
Despite its reputation as a politically and religiously right-wing country, Israel is progressive when it comes to stem cells. The government took the issues of human cloning and genetic manipulation head-on in the 1990s, assembling an advisory committee of judges, rabbis, ethicists and scientists to come up with recommendations. The resulting “Prohibition of Genetic Intervention” law was passed in 1999.
While the law prohibits reproductive cloning in humans, “it does not forbid cloning absolutely,” says Dr. Shraga Blazer, chair of the National Statutory Committee of the Embryo and Fetus in Medical Science. The law specifies that, upon recommendation of the advisory committee, if the minister of health is convinced “that human dignity will not be prejudiced,” he may permit exceptions to the rule.
The day will come, Blazer predicts, when a diabetic will get embryonic stem cells to produce insulin, or a heart-attack victim could receive a new lease on life thanks to regenerative tissue that would repair damaged organs.
Blazer, head of the neonatal unit at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, foresees the day when therapeutic cloning could play a major role in saving lives. However, “it is forbidden now because cloning procedures are unsafe.”
As for the religiously based controversy that swirls around embryonic stem-cell research elsewhere in the world, Blazer has this to say: “I am always amazed our ancient fathers, 2,000 years ago, sat in shul and argued, ‘When does life start?’ … And after 2,000 years, it’s [still] crucial.”
Judaism “does not see complete adult rights in the fetus unless he was born or most of his body was expelled from the womb,” Blazer explains. According to the Talmud, “an embryo starts to get his rights after 40 days of pregnancy. Until then he is simply water.”
An embryo created outside the womb has no halachic status, he says.
Blazer is unruffled by the outside fuss. In vitro fertilization raised similar debates years ago, he points out. “Catholics said, ‘How do you dare say that people will be born without love, without affection?’ Look at the newspapers 25 years ago, you will find the same arguments.”
But “we are not playing God. We don’t fear it’s interfering with God’s creation by studying something … To know the secret of these embryonic stem cells is a step toward improving the world and for fighting against diseases.”
Scientists in Israel, South Korea, England and elsewhere “are forging ahead,” Blazer says.
Professor Karl Shorecki says embryonic stem-cell research, as well as population genetics, are “two of the most ethically challenging areas of research at Technion. … There has been a very high level of civil discourse” on both topics in the Jewish state.
Shorecki, who heads the Rappaport Institute of Medical Research and the Laboratory for Molecular Medicine, both at Technion, has done studies on such potentially controversial areas as population genetics, hereditary disease and DNA sequencing and modification.
His aim is not to prove superiority or inferiority, he stresses. Rather, “We find that genetics has deconstructed the idea of race and racism.” When comparing all the different races, he says, “We are 0.1 percent different” from one another.
As for any religious conflict with his work, Shorecki, who is Orthodox, says his stream of Judaism is “quite progressive” on both stem-cell research and genetics. The thinking, he says, is “let’s use science in a way that will help solve social problems.”
Blazer’s argument is also simple: “Fifty-thousand people a year are killed from car accidents; everything has a possibility for good, and not for good.
“Humanity is strong enough to protect itself.”
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