"Therapeutic Cloning": Where Do We Go From Here?
Organized by Douglas C. Wallace, Susan V. Bryant, and Peter J. Donovan
October 8-9, 2007
Irvine, CA
Meeting Overview:
Cell therapies based on the use of pluripotent human embryonic stem cells promise to revolutionize the practice of medicine. Specialized cells derived from human embryonic stem cells could be used to treat a wide variety of human diseases and disorders. But the existing human embryonic stem cell lines are only compatible with a sub-set of the human population. This raises the important problem that transplanted cells would be rejected or that treated individuals would need to be immuno-suppressed for the rest of their lives. In an ideal world, human stem cell lines would be developed that were compatible with each individual. Theoretically this could be achieved through the process of nuclear reprogramming in which a nucleus from an individual is reprogrammed in the cytoplasm of an egg. The subsequent cells that develop from the re-programmed nucleus could then be used to create patient-specific human embryonic stem cell lines that would avoid the important problem of rejection. While the process of nuclear reprogramming works in some species, so far in humans it has not.
This meeting addressed some of the critical issues in this field, including the sources of eggs for nuclear reprogramming, the ethical problems associated with egg donation, alternative sources of eggs, improved methods for nuclear reprogramming, problems associated with mixing of mitochondria, alternative methods for creating pluripotent stem cells and problems with stem cells that can occur through improper methods of culture of the embryo or the resultant stem cell lines. Ultimately, development of methods for successful nuclear reprogramming in humans could revolutionize methods for practicing medicine as well as improving our understanding of the maintenance of the differentiated state.
Video Available
Session I: Where are we now?
Susan V. Bryant, University of California, Irvine
Opening Remarks
Cultural and religious differences in attitudes towards therapeutic cloning and egg donation
Anne Drapkin Lyerly, M.D., Duke University School of Medicine
Cross-cultural considerations of cloning using human eggs
Alison Murdoch, Newcastle Fertility Centre at LIFE
Learning from the Korean experience
Mildred Cho, Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics
Lessons from Dolly
Ian Wilmut, University of Edinburgh
Session II: Applications of Therapeutic Cloning
Improvement of the efficiency of somatic cell nuclear transfer
Teruhiko Wakayama, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology
Deciphering disease progression using nuclear transfer and stem cells
Kevin Eggan, Harvard University
Histocompatible embryonic stem cells
George Daley, Children's Hospital Boston
Different nuclei-different expression
Mahendra Rao, Invitrogen Corp
Keynote Lecture: Fundamentals of cloning
John Gurdon, University of Cambridge
Session III: De-differentiation and Differentiation
Spindle-associated proteins
Gerald P. Schatten, University of Pittsburg
Induction of pluripotency by defined factors
Kiichiro Tomoda, The Gladstone Institute, University of California, San Francisco
Reprogramming somatic stem cells into pluripotent stem cells
Kathrin Plath, University of California, Los Angeles
Germ cells from stem cells
Renee Reijo Pera, Stanford University
Session IV: Challenges and Solutions
Culture and genetic modification of germline stem (GS) cells
Takashi Shinohara, University of Kyoto
Mitochondrial DNA variation in stem cell biology and disease
Douglas Wallace, University of California, Irvine
Imprinting in stem cells
Roger Pedersen, University of Cambridge
Peter Donovan, University of California, Irvine
Closing Remarks
