A report this week indicates that induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS), the technology whereby adult stem cells (ASCs) are used to create novel stem cell lines may be inherently flawed, as the resulting cells and cell lines have been found to have important mutations.
Adult stem cells in this case are more appealing than embryonic stem cells (ESCs), which come with ethical/moral challenges. So - assuming the research is confirmed - we're back to the core conflict with stem cells - do we use morally complicated ESC technology, or potentially flawed ASCs.
The news this week will be used to aggressively promote the still controversial ESC research over ASC, but I suspect that with research we will become very comfortable with the known mutations in certain applications, but not without time and additional research.
I mention all of this because - like most emergent life science technologies - stem cells have been substantially hyped and oversold.
I just took a look at the timeline of some of the hype involved. Christopher Reeve led a big PR campaign in 2001, and California passed Proposition 71 in 2004, which raised $3B to be spent by CIRM over 10 years on stem cell research in California.
We're in year 7 of CIRM, and presumably 70% of the bond proceeds ($2.1B) have been allocated and spent. Along with annual Federal (NIH) spending - estimated at $1.1B in 2010, state funding (estimated at $400M/year) other academic basic research, and billions by pharma (hard to track) we may be spending $2B/year on stem cell research, and likely >$15B since 2001. Funding doesn't seem to be the problem.
What does this tell us:
-we should be EXTREMELY cynical in evaluating expectations for new life science technologies. It is not unreasonable to double estimated costs and timelines.
-technologies should be measured and advanced on the basis of their disease impact. The stem cell crusade in the 2000's was an effort to advance basic research as a whole. The better basis would be on a more accountable disease-basis, which would emphasize that stem cells would be one therapeutic tool among many.
-we should do whatever we can to keep technology development from being a political issue. I still believe that the kerfuffel over embryonic stem cells in the early 2000's was as much about a tug of war for $$$ (and pushback against the notion that politicians should have a voice in research agendas) as it was a morality debate. Ultimately, I do not know conclusively if the debate helped or hurt stem cell research (my guess is helped with funding, net), but it certainly drew a great deal of intellectually dishonest speculation.
-just plain don't invest in public companies at the front of a technology wave. Stem cells will ultimately have a commercial impact, but as anyone who bought Geron shares in 2000 at a price >$60 per share, investing too early represents dumb money. (10 years later, Geron is now trading for one 12th of the price ten years earlier.)
Of course, one might have been able to say the same thing about genomics (take a look at the HGSI valuation over time (peak of ~$25B in value, now worth $5B, after the approval Benylista), so let's hope that the billions spent on stem cell research have brought research to the tipping point.
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