Musings on genome medicine: is there hope for ethical and safe stem cell therapeutics?
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* Corresponding author: Maureen L Condic mlcondic@neuro.utah.edu
1 Life Technologies, 3705 Executive Way, Frederick, MD 21704, USA
2 John Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21231, USA
3 University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Salt Lake City, UT 84132-3401, USA
Genome Med 2009, 1:70 doi:10.1186/gm70
Published: 14 July 2009Abstract
Although most stem cell therapy has been non-controversial, therapy based on pluripotent stem cells has raised both ethical and safety concerns. Despite these concerns, the use of cells derived from pluripotent stem cells has recently been approved for clinical trials. We suggest that recent advances in the field have provided avenues to develop pluripotent cells that raise far fewer ethical concerns. Moreover, advances in cell sorting, gene modification and screening have allowed the development of safer therapeutic approaches. Continued advances in this rapidly evolving field are likely to allow therapy to be delivered in a safe and effective manner without socially divisive ethical controversy in the not-so-distant future.