How pale are words, compared to the blazing reality of a maple leaf in Autumn -- or a stem cell convention.
The Stem Cell Summit, October 2-3, was organized by Bernie Siegel's Genetics Policy Institute, Steve Burrill's Life Sciences Media Group, and, Harvard University, one of the greatest educational institutes in the world.
It was October 2, 2007. Hynes Convention Center, Boston Massachusetts . High ceilings, spacious auditoriums, light sources suspended high above, a soaring atmosphere.
I like to show up early for events, to watch everything come together. Today, there were folks zipping around everywhere, providing for attendee comfort, and communication.
"Something's
unplugged over here!", came a voice to my right. By the time I could locate the disturbance, two techno experts were converging on the problem, homing in on the difficulty like sharks to a blood trail. Talktalktalk, fixfixfix-- done. The preparation paid to problems throughout the conference was evidenced by the fact that there did not seem to be any. Communication and comfort felt easy and natural.
It's hard to pull highlights out of a meeting that was all highlights.
But let's try anyway.
Jammed "more than 600 high-impact executives, entrepreneurs, scientists, politicians, patients and activists"it occurred to me we really did not want an earthquake today, or we could have lost a huge cross-section of the stem cell research leadership of the nation.
Conspicuous by his absence was Bob Klein. Bernie Siegel had of course invited the leader of Proposition 71 to deliver the keynote speech, but the chair of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee had a crucial ICOC meeting to preside over. Even so, it hardly seemed possible to hold a stem cell event of this magnitude without the participation of the leader of Proposition 71-- like discussing the circularity of the world without focusing on Columbus.
"Fifty years ago, the first blood stem cells were isolated," said David Scadden of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, opening the convention.
"Today, the pro-cures movement is a great and gathering wave," said Bernie Siegel. Bernie, of course, was everywhere, making everyone welcome, spreading warmth and energy like a friendly floodlight. As any reader of this column knows, Bernie is a spectacular synergist. To find him at a convention, look in the halls outside" he will be meeting new friends, bringing people together.
I took a ton of notes, of course, so many that transposing them from handwriting (I forgot my laptop, sigh.) took several days. But the power gathered in that building is something not easy to sum up.
"Last year, America spent two trillion dollars on health care," said Steve Burrill. "In seven years, this amount is expected to double. Of this, only about 10% will be spent on drugs" this was expected to be 60%. The importance of drugs will diminish.
"Patients are different, but medicines are not differentiated. It is the variability among us that causes some to be susceptible to disease and some not.
"Industry raised $50 billion last year" we will not fail for lack of funding.
"So the message is simple-- short big pharma, buy biotech!"
The silver-haired CEO is a cheerful, friendly presence, and he runs a venture capital firm, so is definitely a serious individualâ€"but what I did not know until the convention that the man has been integral in biomedicine for almost four decades, with his first commercial venture in 1968.
So many people we know of, and hardly ever meet.
Like Danny Heumann. I knew this cheerful wheelchair warrior a little bit, from bumping into him now and again, mostly in print "but what I did not know is that he is a one-man advocacy bureau for stem cell advancement in Michigan, one of the most stem cell unfriendly places in the world. The wolverine state has not yet figured out (in the political circles) how tremendously important stem cell research is. But Danny's ready to fight, and the cause is the richer for his strength.
His situation is like what the Texas folks endure, friends like Beckie McCleery "think for a minute how inhospitable the home state of George Bush would be for stem cell research "but yet they have not passed one negative stem cell bill.
Not for lack of trying. The same right-to-life folks who oppose the research everywhere are very strong in Texas, and every other year they try to shoot us down.
Texas has an unusual legislative structure, 140 days in session, every other year. In that short time, 4 and a half months, some 5,200 bills go through"so everything depends on preparation, and that is what TAMR (Texans for the Advancement of Medical Research) does best. They put together a great videoâ€"Ralph Dittman, honored for his advocacy at this very meeting.
Brock Reeve spoke on how stem cell research will transform medicine in the 21st century"this is Christopher Reeve's brother! Naturally I had to run up and make a big fool out myself, trying to tell him what his magnificent brother meant to me, and to all of us "like I could do that. I was almost in tears, gushing like an idiot, before I realized how often he must hear stuff like that. Brock is a force himself, and I should have restrained myself. But, unfortunately, I always overdo. Sigh.
John Gerhardt gave a historical overview of our science, human embryonic stem cell research, which in 1998 made its first public appearance. No one dreamed then what it could be in terms of drug discovery, cell-based therapy and basic science. Extent of advance, define pluripotency,
Our goal? To learn how to instruct a cell to become something new, or to patch our own cells: repair and regenerative mechanisms.
"Doug Melton! The man who made 17 new stem cell lines and shared them for free with the world deserves to have an exclamation point after his name Doug's lines are great", Larry Goldstein said later.
Dr. Melton spoke on stem cell disease models, cells as reagents, how by studying the process in a dish, we can learn to stimulate body to repair itself.
He said a lot of stuff I did not understand about how blood research had shown us the way to further advances in regenerative medicine. (Well, I'm sorry, but the man talks in words like erithropoietic!
He recommended the use of SCNT disease specific cells as crucial.
In answer to those folks who see adult stem cells as all we need, Dr. Melton mentioned that there may be no adult stem cells at all in some body organs, like the kidney.
Larry Goldstein, of the University of California at San Diego and Howard Hughes laboratory, spoke on how we can accelerate the therapeutic uses for stem cells by first studying what goes wrong in diseaseâ€"through SCNT disease specific stem cells, exactly as Doug Melton recommended.
Dr. Goldstein commented that too often the good cells are the ones that die, in diseases where the immune system attacks our own bodies. Like in ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, the motor neurons are attacked, by the body.
Maybe we can provide glial cells to help the body calm down its own attack.
"Half of us are going to get it" he said, referring (I think) to Alzheimer's, and neurological disorders in general in an aging population. (Please remember, I am a non-scientist struggling to understand people vastly smarter than me.)
I love to hear Larry Goldstein talk because he is not only a skilled communicator, but also because he always takes up huge issues, in people terms.
"We are like auto mechanics," he said, describing scientists, "We need new tools (SCNT) to do the work."
He also talked about the importance of SAFETY in stem cell research, pointing out that while drugs leave the body, cellular change is permanent. We better know what we are doing before we completely alter a person's cell structure.
"Watch for something unexpected, out of left field," he said, "Remember, everything we are doing now was once thought impossible."
Leonard Zon spoke on the zebra fish, which (if I heard right) can deliver 300 babies a week, hugely beneficial to the study of inherited diseases.
Dr. Zon reminded us all that in 1961 the first organ transplant was done in a mouse and it was not until 1975 that the first human organ transplant was successfully accomplished. Fourteen years is a long time, for we who wait for cure. But we have also had the entire history of the world without the miracles we now await "we patient advocates will try to be reasonable" but we will also keep pushing.
He mentioned the greatness possible when SCNT can bring disease-specific stem cells, and chemicals can be tested on them, to quickly know what works-- instead of trying it endlessly slowly on an animal or a human.
He also described Doug Melton's stem cell lines as the "gold standard".
I saw Jessica Gerstle, movie maker, in the audience, with her dad beside her in his wheel chair, asking difficult questions of the scientist. Jessica's stem cell movie may be accepted at the world famous Sundance film festival!
And then the curtains parted. Brooke Ellison was there, 28 years old, completely paralyzed, and her mom, standing beside her. I remembered Brooke's race for the Senate, and how she graduated from Harvard with a degree in cognitive neuroscience.
Brooke's story was told in the book, "Miracles Happen", and made into a movie by Christopher Reeve.
"I had two lives," Brooke said, "Until I was eleven, that was one life. I was active, dancing, soccer, singing, each night devoted to one activity.
"On September 4th, 1990, my first life ended. It was to have been the opening day of the seventh grade. But in an instant, everything changed.
"All the things I thought were definite were gone. There is no way to prepare for or understand the unpredictability of life.
"I woke up in the hospital, with IV's in me, and unable to move. The prognosis was dark, pessimistic.
"Today, we know that paralysis is not an unchangeable condition. We can spread a message of hope.
"Christopher Reeve never would accept pessimism, and doubt. Neither must we.
"An isolated opposition is blocking us. We must counter their mistruths, with truth.
"The battle is so important; none can be complacent. It is not enough to be aware, we must translate thoughts into action. A moment wasted is an opportunity lost.
"The goal is in sight, our mission is clear. All must play a part.
"Our mission is clear. We must complete it.
"Now is the time."
And then we were on our feet.
(Part two to follow).
Don Reed
www.stemcellbattles
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