Nerac Interview: Because of the erroneous and even fraudulent claims of successful cloning of human embryonic stem cells by Korean scientists, the importance of stem cell research has been a hot topic. We spoke with Nerac Analyst, Dr. John Leavitt, a molecular biologist whose areas of expertise and research include human cancer biology and genetics, about the progress and promise of stem cell research.

Nerac: Why is stem cell research important to the public?
Leavitt: One can treat diseases that are caused by the loss of a particular cell function or tissue function. If you have stem cells that can differentiate into that missing or defective tissue, then in theory you can do something called cell replacement therapy where you replace the defective cells with the healthy cells and the healthy cells would then be able to regenerate the defective tissue. There are also many possible spin-off benefits of stem cell research such as development of better methods for testing the efficacy of new drugs in-vitro before testing these drugs in humans. Just the knowledge alone, derived from aggressive human stem cell research, will provide us with a better understanding of all human diseases.

Nerac: What kinds of diseases could potentially be cured with stem cell technology?
Leavitt: Any disease where tissue is destroyed and there is no ability to regenerate those tissues by the body. We all know that livers regenerate to some degree but brain cells don’t, neurons don’t. So, when you think of the diseases that might be addressed first, it’s the neurodegenerative diseases that would be addressed like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease. Spinal cord injury is a key area also. In the news you heard about Christopher Reeve and his wife arguing for more stem cell research because the general thought is that spinal cord injury could be addressed.

Nerac: How soon could we expect to see cures for diseases because of the research being conducted on stem cell research?
Leavitt: I was in cancer research for 30 years and I was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society and people were always coming up to me and saying, “When are we going to cure cancer?‿ Early on in my naïve beginning, I would say, “well, by 1980″ or something like that.
(Laughter)
The truth of the matter is that after decades of research, we still can’t cure many types of cancer, but people are living longer and surviving cancer at a higher frequency because of it, so there have been great benefits to the amount of research that’s gone into cancer research.

To my way of thinking, advancement of stem cell technologies as therapies for human diseases is an equally difficult problem, and this will require a tremendous amount of research. The research will focus on improving, first the efficiency of generating embryonic stem cells from the egg by asexual fertilization, especially given the failure of the Koreans. Then the major area of development with stem cells will be to figure out how to control the differentiation of these cells into the type of tissue that you’re interested in growing. These are very complicated matters, but there has been a lot of progress in understanding stem cells over the last few years. So, to put a number on how many years a successful treatment will take, I can’t tell you.

Nerac: Will we see someone with injuries similar to Chris Reeve’s injuries walk in our lifetime?
Leavitt: Well, walking is going all the way. It could be that we’ll see small improvements, like people regaining the use of their fingers or an arm. There should be hundreds of defined goals, because there are many levels of success. Once we allow academic embryonic and adult stem cell research to go forward with the proper amount of federal funding, we’ll be able to better measure the timing of success, but the success should be measured in small increments, not just getting up and walking. I don’t want to be the one to say that it’s going to be five years or ten years, but it’s almost a sure thing, I think.