The papers have been published, so what’s next? Here are a few questions to keep an eye on:

Can cells be reprogrammed into embryonic-like stem cells without the use of retroviruses?
Quick biology overview: the teams in Japan and Wisconsin were able re-program skin cells by inserting four genes into the DNA of the cells (the genes involved varied between the two teams) and they used retroviruses to do this editing. The problem is that during this editing, retroviruses can also introduce random disruptions in to the DNA and those disruptions can cause tumors. Rick Weiss reports in the Washington Post that both teams are already working on this challenge. “I don’t think it is a big hurdle,” Whitehead’s Rudy Jaenisch told Weiss.

Yamanaka’s going to California, what does that say about state funding and regulation of stem cell research?

Shinya Yamanaka

This past summer when Yamanaka announced he was setting up a lab at the Gladstone Institutes at UC-SF, he mentioned that he would have relatively less governmental interference there than in Japan (Google cache of SJ Mercury News story). There’s also the funding, of course. The first fellow in Yamanaka’s lab is being funded by CIRM money. And, according to that Mercury News story, his lab still plans to work on embryonic stem cells for comparative studies.

What are the intellectual property implications?
In the teleconference this morning with reporters, James Thomson confirmed that WARF would be patenting the Wisconsin’s team’s work. And he predicted that the patent situation would be “very complicated.” Remember, WARF holds the patent on embryonic stem cells in the United States, which has been a source of controversy.

When — and how — are the politicians going to get involved?
The White House issued a statement today about the research, that when read between the lines, says something to the effect of ‘see, we told you so’:

President Bush was the first president to make federal funds available for human embryonic stem cell research — and his policy did this in ways that would not encourage the destruction of embryos. In July 2006, the President highlighted research into the possibility of reprogramming adult skin cells into pluripotent stem cells without intruding on human embryos or eggs. The President’s Executive Order issued in June 2007 was intended to accelerate precisely the kind of research being reported today. One of the studies announced today was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health operating under the President’s stem cell policy.

Stem cell research was a big issue during the last presidential election, probably in the Democrat’s advantage. How will today’s developments shape the issue during this next cycle? In an interview with Wired, Fr. Thomas Berg of the Westchester Institute (a Catholic think thank) predicted that Mitt Romney will “very vocally” embrace cell re-programming and that the other Republican candidates for president would “be stupid not to.” It will be interesting to see how the Democratic candidates respond, given that they have been more supportive of therapeutic cloning.

-Greg Dahlmann

photo of Yamanaka: Kyoto University