2007 Story of the Year

Two independent investigative groups reported in November the discovery of a method to convert ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cell equivalents. The discoveries were reported in the prestigious scientific journals Science and Cell. In essence, skin cells were reprogrammed to look and behave like embryonic stem cells by the insertion of four additional genes.

The lead investigators were Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, and Drs. Junying Yu and James Thomson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their accomplishments should pave the way for further progress in ethical stem cell research and negates the need to destroy of human embryos to obtain stem cells. It also eliminates the moral quagmire associated with a large scale egg harvesting industry involving thousands of young women,

Although many obstacles must be overcome before these cells will be ready for medical therapies, I fully expect to see Nobel Prizes awarded to these scientists in the future. Moreover, it eases the way for a worldwide ban on all forms of human cloning and the nightmare scenarios bound to accompany such efforts.

President Bush also deserves praise for standing firm against the expansion of human embryo research. It is likely that his resolute stance played a significant role in motivating these and other investigators to pursue ethically acceptable alternatives to embryonic stem cells. The Strenuous Life hopes that the next President of the United States will exhibit similar backbone when faced with the inevitable ethical decisions.