Australia

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The Australian Stem Cell Centre
is a major Australian collaborative initiative uniting many of the country’s leading academic researchers with the biotechnology industry to develop innovative therapeutic products to treat a range of serious injuries and debilitating diseases.
The Centre will build on Australia’s existing expertise in stem cell and related platform technologies to lay the foundations for delivering stem cell therapies.
The Australian Stem Cell Centre : http://www.nscc.edu.au/ascc_home.html |

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The Legislation Review Committee
has completed its terms of reference by independently reviewing legislation relating to human cloning and research involving human embryos. This website is maintained as a historical record of the main documentation for the independent reviews. site: 2005 Lockhart |

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August 2, 2006

Stem cell debate hushed
Leigh Dayton, Science writer

SENIOR stem cell researchers fear Prime Minister John Howard has given in to conservative sentiment and will sideline debate on the nation's embryo research and cloning legislation.

If so, experts warn Australia will lag in areas of embryonic stem cell research that promise treatments for conditions as diverse as spinal cord injury and Alzheimer's disease.

Paul Simmons
head of the stem cell program at Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute | links |

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Paul Simmons
Centre for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Texas's
Brown Foundation Institute for Molecular Medicine |

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"Three to four years ago Australia had an incredible eminence in the stem cell field. Now we're forced out of the game to a large extent. It's very sad to see," said Paul Simmons, head of the stem cell program at Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. Dr Simmons leaves the institute in September to lead the Centre for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Texas's Brown Foundation Institute for Molecular Medicine.

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Stephen Livesey
Australian Stem Cell Centre in Melbourne

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According to Stephen Livesey, head of the Australian Stem Cell Centre in Melbourne, scientists worry the federal Government has not yet responded to the legally mandated Lockhart review of the legislation, tabled in parliament last December.

"I strongly urge the Prime Minister to meet with representatives of the Lockhart committee and examine their advice first hand," Dr Livesey said.

After extensive public consultation the Lockhart committee - composed of experts in science, law and ethics - put forward 54 recommendations, including one permitting a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer, also known as therapeutic or research cloning.

Because the technique involves the creation and destruction of an early stage embryo, opponents such as federal Health Minister Tony Abbott say it is unethical and should remain unlawful.

Although it's likely that stem cell research will be debated at the next federal Coalition partyroom meeting on August 7, Mr Howard has not agreed to bring the matter to parliament. To date, only cabinet has discussed the Lockhart recommendations.

Stem cell scientist Megan Munsie, development manager for Melbourne-based Stem Cell Sciences, said this disturbs researchers. "It seems that cabinet has already made the decisions about the recommendations, which is odd when there's yet to be a full parliamentary debate," Dr Munsie said.

"It's a very important and well-evaluated document and should be shown more respect."

Concern about Australia's legislation comes as the European Union last week agreed to tighten its rules over stem cell research, funded through its EU-wide research program.

The European development reflects the legislative muddle that emerged in the US on July 19 when President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that would have significantly broadened federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.

His veto is expected to see states and private foundations take the lead in embryo research.

Already, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has lent the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine $US150 million in infrastructure funding.

Scientists advancing stem cell therapies

Australian scientists believe they have moved a step closer to developing human embryonic stem cells capable of treating disease.

But they say the first therapies based on the controversial research may still be five to 10 years away.

The researchers at Sydney's

Prince of Wales Hospital |

have produced a continuously growing population of human embryonic stem cells in a culture devoid of animal products, eliminating the risk of animal-to-human contamination in potential therapies.

They've named their new stem cell line - a group of cells which can replicate for long periods of time outside the body - Endeavour 1, after the ship Captain Cook was sailing when he discovered Australia.

Lead researcher Kuldip Sidhu, a senior lecturer at the

University of NSW,

said his team was only the second in the world
to grow a new human embryonic stem cell line without relying on animal products.

Scientists in Wisconsin beat the Australian team by just days, announcing the world's first such stem cell lines in a recent edition of the journal, Nature Biotechnology.

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Nature Biotechnology | http://www.nature.com/nbt/index.html |

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Successfully growing living cells outside the body has often depended on animal products to keep the cells alive and thriving in culture.

Eliminating the need for animal products is seen by scientists as overcoming a major hurdle in developing safe and effective treatments for human diseases using embryonic stem cells.

Prince of Wales Hospital |

Dr Sidhu, who is based at the
Prince of Wales Hospital's diabetes transplant unit, said

Endeavour 1

was growing on a layer of "feeder" cells derived from human skin, whereas the Wisconsin team had grown their lines in the absence of feeder cells.

"The line we have is a very stable line in terms of chromosomes, whereas the team from Wisconsin have a bit of a problem with the stability of their lines. That is the major difference," he explained in an interview.

However, other Australian scientists have reacted cautiously to Dr Sidhu's announcement until they see the scientific data for themselves.

"It may be that the claims are correct, that the feeder layer provides an environment that supports better genetic stability. I think only time will tell," said

Martin Pera,
director of embryonic stem cell research at the
Australian Stem Cell Centre in Melbourne.

"Until the findings are properly assessed by peer review, it's really not possible to say whether the data are sufficient to support the claims.

"If they have done what they say they've done yes, it's a step forward.

"But I think ultimately, it will be necessary to eliminate feeder cells altogether."

Prince of Wales Hospital |

Dr Sidhu, who's based at the
Prince Of Wales Hospital's Diabetes Transplant Unit,

said another major hurdle would be developing a process for effectively manipulating the stem cells into specific cell types to treat disease.

Embryonic stem cells have the potential to become any kind of human tissue offering hope they could one day be used to treat illnesses as diverse as diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, heart disease, stroke and possibly even spinal cord injuries and burns.

At present, adult stem cells are the only type of stem cells commonly used to treat human disease, mostly in bone marrow transplants.

But Dr Sidhu said embryonic stem cells offered greater potential for treating disease.

He said stem cells derived from adult tissue were not as capable of being transformed into as many different cell types and did not divide as easily as the embryonic variety.

"If you're talking about, say for example in a diabetic patient, you'd need two million cells to get started with therapy and to generate those two million cells at the present moment from adult tissue, it is very difficult whereas embryonic stem cells can generate those cells very quickly," Dr Sidhu said.

Judy Skatssoon
ABC Science Online |
Tuesday, 20 December 2005 

Australian scientists may be able to produce cloned stem cells for the first time if the government adopts a recommendation to lift the ban on therapeutic cloning.

Australian scientists have welcomed a recommendation to allow the cloning of embryos for stem cells but say they'll never use the technology to create humans. An independent committee of scientists, medical experts and ethicists this week recommended that Australia lift its ban on therapeutic cloning, or somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

The independent committe also called for the establishment of a stem cell bank based at the Australian Stem Cell Centre in Melbourne. Scientists responding to the Lockhart report hailed the report as a step in the right direction for research but vowed they will not use it to push for reproductive cloning. The Stem Cell Centre's Professor Martin Pera says the report provides a "sound, ethical and well reasoned" basis for a revision of existing laws and is hopeful the government will endorse the recommendations. But he denies lifting the ban on SCNT represents what critics argue is a slippery slope to the production of living human clones.

"The scientific community remains absolutely steadfast in its opposition to reproductive cloning," he says. "In a very pragmatic sense there are no medical and scientific reasons to undertake it and there are plenty of good reasons why sex exists and why normal reproduction is as it is." He also says animal studies have shown that abnormalities are "the rule rather than the exception" in clones.

Another leading stem cell researcher, Professor Bernie Tuch, says it's premature to comment on how the recommendations will affect his work until the government decides whether to act on the report.

Prince of Wales Hospital |

But he says his Diabetes Transplant Unit at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital "would certainly consider using [SCNT]." "It's a recommendation which ... provides confidence in ... the ability of our researchers to use their skills and progress this field, which has much to offer," he says.

How SCNT works
SCNT involves inserting the DNA from a non-reproductive cell into an enucleated egg.

The egg is then "tricked" into dividing by technical processes mimicking the signals that occur when a sperm fertilises an egg, such as exposing it to electric shocks or certain chemicals. 

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Blastocyst

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Once the egg begins dividing it forms a blastocyst from which stem cells can be harvested. "What a lot of people would envision would be to derive stem cell lines from patients with known susceptibility to disease to allow scientists to study them," Pera says. He also says SCNT provides a "smarter," more targeted alternative to getting stem cells from frozen IVF embryos, as has been the case since 2002.

Korean controversy
The long-awaited report comes as the journal Science announced it had received a request from Korean stem cell researcher Dr Hwang Woo Suk of Seoul National University asking to retract a paper on therapeutic cloning published in May. In the paper Hwang reported that he had created stem cell lines from a cloned embryo but a senior colleague later alleged the results in the study were fabricated. Hwang later admitted the research contained "fatal errors" and that there were "irretrievable mistakes in the photography" accompanying the results. However, he stands by his research, saying, "What I can say clearly is that we have produced patient-specific stem cells and we have the technology to do so."

Official investigations into the allegations are underway. Pera says the case shouldn't impact on Australia's response to the Lockhart report. "The conduct of stem cell research in Australia has been exemplary and Australia can now provide a real model for ethical and well regulated research."