The German drug discovery and development company Evotec
recently issued a
press release announcing a grant to develop drugs to treat Parkinson’s.
Nothing unusual about that – medical research and
development companies routinely issue press releases upon receiving a major
grant.
But what made this press release stand out was that the
grant was awarded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF), for research using
non-embryonic stem cells.
Evotec’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr.
Cord Dohrmann says the grant is part of a larger “initiative to address
neurodegenerative diseases through highly innovative approaches involving
patient-derived stem cells and genetically validated mechanisms.”
“Patient-derived stem cells” – in other words, non-embryonic
stem cells. That MJFF is funding such
research is noteworthy, because Michael J. Fox himself has been a leading public
proponent of human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) since 1998. While many Hollywood
celebrities advocated for such research, Fox was perhaps second only to the
late Christopher Reeve in promoting hESCR.
He testified before Congress on several occasions that hESCR would be
the key to finding a cure for Parkinson’s.
Yet non-embryonic stem cell alternatives now account for the
majority of research grants awarded by MJFF for stem cell research.
According to its website, since it launched in 2000, the
MJFF has awarded a total of 1,345
research grants. However, of that
total, a mere 66
grants were for stem cell research[1]
Of those 66, 48 directly involved the use of stems cells,
either human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) or adult and other non-embryonic stem
cells, such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).[2]
Thirty of the 48 grants, or 62.5%, were for adult, induced
pluripotent, or other non-embryonic stem cell research. Eighteen grants or 37.5% were for embryonic
stem cell research.
Notwithstanding his past congressional testimony
enthusiastically endorsing hESC research, Michael J. Fox admitted
that “other avenues of research have grown and multiplied and have become as
much or more promising…an answer may come from [human embryonic] stem cell
research but it’s more likely to come from another area.”
As the majority of grants awarded by the Michel J. Fox
Foundation shows, those “other avenues” of research may not even involve stem
cells, whether adult or non-embryonic.
But the grants that the MJFF has awarded to stem cell research show a clear preference for
non-embryonic stem cell projects – an indication of their greater potential for
addressing Parkinson’s than the once highly touted hESCs.
[1] The
result using the search engine on the Funded
Grants page to search the term “stem cell.”
[2] Fourteen
of the grants did not actually use human stem cells, either embryonic or
non-embryonic, or were for research using animal models, which virtually all
agree is ethically non-contentious. The
remaining four grants utilized cells derived from fetal tissue which makes them
adult, not embryonic stem cells. But because such tissue is harvested from
aborted fetuses, research utilizing it carries the same ethical baggage as hESC
research which, of course, requires the destruction of human embryos.
