http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/52549_yebiotech29.shtml
Biotechnology in the public eye >From terrorism to stem cells, field will play an even more prominent role in 2002 Saturday, December 29, 2001 By PAUL ELIAS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO -- At the dawn of the new millennium, biotechnology finally began to matter to people outside laboratories and brokerage houses. Scientists began deciphering the human genome in 2001, human embryos were cloned, and gene research gained new urgency as microbiologists joined the battle against a suddenly very real danger -- bioterrorism. In 2002, scientists hope to turn their understanding of how genes work into drugs, extract human embryonic stem cells from cloned embryos and develop powerful vaccines against germ warfare. Already, researchers at the University of Wisconsin report success in the lab turning human embryonic stem cells into human brain cells, a critical step toward creating an endless supply of transplantable neural cells and tissue to repair spinal cord injuries and cell-based diseases like Parkinson's. "Stem cell therapy has reached the heartland," said Lee Silver, a Princeton University microbiologist and an authority on cloning and stem cell science. "Most people in America know somebody with a disease." Lobbying from patients helped persuade President Bush in August to authorize federally financed research on existing human embryonic stem cell lines. Nonetheless, the battle over destroying human embryos to obtain stem cells will be taken up again in 2002, with the Senate expected to consider legislation that would criminalize all human cloning efforts. While lawmakers and activists take aim at the scientists and companies working with embryonic stem cells, a handful of companies such as Aastrom Biosciences, Curis Inc. and StemCells Inc. are quietly working with adult stem cells, which are derived from blood and organs without harm to embryos or people. On the biotech business front, analysts predict massive consolidation next year, ushered in by Amgen Inc.'s proposed $16 billion acquisition of rival Immunex Corp. Analysts also say 2002 will be the year monoclonal antibodies, the original bioengineered proteins that launched the biotechnology industry a quarter century ago, will finally start to pay off. Ten monoclonal antibody drugs are on the market today, and dozens more are in various stages of human trials. Several could be approved by Food and Drug Administration in 2002. Meanwhile, the bioterrorism threat has placed microbiologists on center stage. In addition to helping try to track down whomever was behind the killing of five Americans with anthrax, microbiologists are being called on to create germ warfare detectors, rapidly diagnose attacks and create vaccines and drugs. "Biotechnology is exercising its muscle as it grows into young adulthood," said Carl Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization. "We are seeing a whole new relationship between the biotech industry and the Department of Defense." Nobody know this better than Paul Keim. Until Sept. 11, the Northern Arizona University professor was an affable and well-respected scientist previously unknown to just about everybody outside the field of microbiology. In May, Keim and his students had quickly solved the mystery of why prairie dogs were dying en masse in northern Arizona. Using DNA "fingerprinting" techniques developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and matching the results to Keim's vast inventory of microbial genomes, the team diagnosed bubonic plague in a matter of hours. Federal officials have called on Keim's detective skills to try to identify the source of the anthrax attacks. But it's not just anthrax that worries the nation. Microbiologists are being asked to create vaccines that can combat a number of pathogens, including small pox, bubonic plague and Ebola. They are also being called on to develop defenses against "superbugs," pathogens genetically engineered to render current vaccines powerless. "Germ warfare has garnered all the recent attention," said Jeremy Rifkin, a prominent anti-biotech activist. "But the biggest story in biotechnology is human cloning." On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Chief Executive Michael West of Advanced Cell Technology announced that his company had succeeded in cloning a human embryo. More specifically, it was a tiny bundle of human cells, created by fusing adult cumulus cells -- ovarian cells that surround eggs after ovulation -- with human eggs stripped of their DNA. Three of the eight creations developed in cell bundles, with the best making it to six cells before it stopped dividing. None of the cloned embryos grew large enough to generate any stem cells. But the process did renew the fierce debate over human embryonic stem cells, which had been overshadowed by bioterrorism fears after Sept. 11. "We are using design principles to architect our destiny," Rifkin said. "We are losing the spontaneity of creating life." Advanced Cell is not interested in creating cloned humans, West maintains. He says its ultimate goal is "therapeutic cloning," creating stem cells that can be grown into custom medical treatments, using embryos cloned from patients' own cells. For stem cell science to pay off as disease therapies, Princeton's microbiologist Silver said, cloning embryos will be necessary. "But there's still public confusion over cloning," Silver said. "There is a hysteria surrounding cloning." Silver said cloning scientists will need to coin a new term for their work, like doctors did when they dropped the word "nuclear" from nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. Therapeutic cloning holds great promise as a disease cure, scientists say, although such customized solutions may be prohibitively expensive. Stem cells, created in the first days of pregnancy, later sprout into the more than 200 different cells that make up the human body. Scientists hope to someday manipulate stem cells into adult cells of their choosing. Few scientists doubt the therapeutic promise of stem cells, but the controversy over their source -- human embryos -- could shut down certain avenues of research in the coming year -- or at least drive it overseas. President Bush, Pope John Paul II and a host of others were quick to condemn West's cloning announcement. Many see West's work as a slippery slope that will lead to selective breeding of the human race. "I think this is a watershed event in history," Rifkin said. "It's another step toward a eugenics society." � 1998-2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
