The 2009 World Stem Cell Summit, co-sponsored by Johns Hopkins Medicine, begins today and continues until September 23 in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference assembles key experts in the science, ethics, policy, and business of stem cell research with an expected audience of over 1,200 participants from more than 25 countries. Among the diverse topics, there will be robust discussion about reprogrammed stem cells (iPSCs) and their use alongside embryonic stem cells in regenerative medicine.
The summit organizers have employed traditional and social networking technologies to disseminate information and updates, such as a website, news blog, Twitter site, and video (shown below).
The video, entitled “A Century of Stem Cells”, is narrated by Dr. Valina Dawson (Ph.D.), director of the Neuroregeneration and Stem Cell Programs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The 100-year journey begins with the discovery by Alexander Maximov in 1908 that bone marrow cells give rise to 12 types of blood cells. This is followed by George Gey’s work in 1953 with liquid suspension cell cultures that permit human cells to survive and grow in vitro. Gey had also worked on the original HeLa cells (obtained from Henrietta Lacks, a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital found to have had cervical cancer).
The story continues to 1956 with Donnall Thomas performing the first successful bone marrow transplant. In 1981, Martin Evans demonstrated that a single murine embryonic cell could diferentiate into diverse cell types. This was later coined an “embryonic stem cell” by Gail Martin from the University of California, San Francisco. Three years later, Curt Civin discovered a method for isolating hematopoietic adult stem cells. In the mid-1990s, James Thomson isolated the first embryonic stem cell lines from non-human primates. His group later isolated the first human embryonic stem cell lines in 1998. That same year, John Gearhart and Michael Shamblott derived pluripotent stem cells from human fetal tissue.
In 2007, Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans, and Oliver Smithies receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their discovery of gene-targeting therapy using embryonic stem cells. In 2006 and 2007 as well, Shinya Yamanaka successfully induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) from adult murine and human fibroblasts. In 2009, Linzhao Cheng et al. are the first to genetically alter the human iPS and embyronic stem cells.
Dr. Dawson closes by saying, “This field is evolving and maturing. Each new discovery brings us closer to understanding disease, allowing the development of new and novel treatments.” The history of stem cell research is yet young and largely unwritten, but the immense activity in the field promises many more discoveries and associated implications to come. The medical benefits are staggering and unimaginable, but so are the potential ethical consequences. Please practice science responsibly.
