Professor Creates Stem Cell Lines

A Harvard professor has created 17 new stem cell lines for research—a project he said he became interested in partly because of his own children’s medical condition.

Douglas A. Melton, Cabot professor of the natural sciences, whose two children have been diagnosed with diabetes, announced last Tuesday that he plans to submit his findings for publication in the next few weeks and, upon their release, make the stem cell lines available to the scientific community.

“We made them for our use and to share with the research community,” Melton said at the International Stem Cell Conference in Singapore, according to the Associated Press. “I am hoping that by providing more stem cell lines without restrictions we will encourage more research in the stem cell field.”

Stem cells are unspecialized cells derived from embryos that can develop into any body tissue and researchers believe they may factor into future treatment for diseases ranging from Parkinson’s to diabetes to spinal cord injuries.

Melton said the stem cell lines were isolated from excess embryos donated by fertility clinics with the consent of donors in a process that took about two years.

“I think it provides much greater latitude to scientists to define the potential of stem cells,” said Jerome E. Groopman, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, of the newly created stem cell lines.

In his own research, Melton said he hopes the stem cells could potentially be developed into insulin-producing cells to be grafted into the pancreas as a permanent cure for diabetics.

Melton’s son, Sam, was diagnosed with type-one-diabetes when he was six months old, and his daughter, Emily, was also diagnosed with juvenile diabetes two years ago.

“It’s a long process. There are steps forward, and sometimes there’s a step or two backward,” Melton said. “[My children] are pleased that [the research]’s progressing. But it’s not going to change their life now.”

But Melton’s daughter said she was still happy with her father’s work.

“When I got diagnosed, my dad just had another reason to cure diabetes,” said Emily L. Melton, who is now 16 years old. “I’m very proud that he can devote his life to something like this.”

Stem cell research is a controversial field because deriving stem cells for research requires the destruction of embryos. Two years ago, the Bush administration announced restrictions on research that limited federally funded projects on stem cells to a small number of cell lines that were created before April 9, 2001, and a ban on human cloning which included the cloning of embryos for stem cell research.

Melton said his research was funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International and the Howard Hughes Institute.

On January 10,1999, Melton testified before Congress on the importance of stem cell research, using his experience as both a parent and a scientist.

“The daily regimen of Sam’s blood checks and insulin injections (up to five a day) are coupled with our need to balancing his diet and exercise: a serious challenge in dealing with a seven-year-old soccer player,” he said.

—Material from the Associated Press was used in the reporting of this story.