PCC Receives $1.7 Million Grant for Stem Cell Research

PCC President Paulette Perfumo highlighted the campus' acquisition of a grant - the only one of its kind - to conduct stem cell research in Wednesday's Flex Day opening ceremony.The grant comes shortly after President Barack Obama's recent executive order to allow greater federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells.

The majority of PCC biology instructors contacted by the Courier support the president's action.

"Last week PCC was awarded a grant for $1.7 million to do stem cell training for people, including PCC students, who will be gainfully employed in this area in the coming decade," said Russell E. Di Fiori, biology instructor. He also said PCC is the only community college in the state to receive such a grant.

PCC has been a pioneer in stem cell training and technology for the last four years, according to officials.

The issue of federal funding is particularly relevant while private funds are drying up in the current economy. Di Fiori believes that increased research and development in the area of embryonic stem cells will stimulate California's economy.

Teresa Trendler, biology instructor, is also in support. "I am glad our new president has decided to let scientists work! I feel the prior administration was at fault for interfering with research just to placate a right-wing constituency," Trendler said.

Not everyone agreed, however. "The media plays on people's emotions by emphasizing the use of embryonic stem cells," said Joe Conner, biology instructor. He claims that embryonic stem cells have never produced any therapeutic results and that any successes so far have come from adult stem cells.

"It makes more sense to use adult stem cells for a number of reasons," said Conner. "For example, they come out of the patient's own body and therefore the immune system doesn't reject them, which is a problem with embryonic stem cells."

Furthermore, Conner said scientists have developed a way to regenerate cells from your skin into embryonic stem cells.

Valerie Foster, biology instructor, has a different viewpoint. "Embryonic stem cells are more vigorous, last longer, divide faster, grow faster, and have more plasticity that adult stem cells," she said. Embryonic stem cells are referred to as "master cells" because they can become any cell in the body.

Trendler agreed with Foster. "Adult stem cells, even if reprogrammable, will never tell us what real stem cells can do. Therefore both lines of research need to be pursued," Trendler said.

Di Fiori also agreed. "Embryonic stem cells are much more omnipotent ... The ability to find out the major differences between the two types of stem cells will rely on using the embryonic stem cells for comparison," Di Fiori said.

Foster believes that the campaign against using embryonic stem cells is politically rather than scientifically motivated. "It's all about the anti-abortion thing," she said.

Conner confirmed Foster's suspicions. "I'm against killing embryos for research. I'm against abortion as a general rule, except to save the life of the mother," Conner said.

Most embryos used in research are leftovers from fertility clinics that would otherwise be thrown away, according to reports. In 1996 Congress forbade using federal dollars to fund any experimentation that destroys human embryos.

On Aug. 9, 2001, George W. Bush gave an executive order to allow federal funding only for research conducted on the 21 embryonic stem cell lines created before that date. Obama's executive order, signed on March 9, now allows scientists to use federal funding to experiment on embryonic stem cells created at any time.

Foster sees Obama's decision as a victory because "having only a small number of embryonic stem cell lines to work with is very limiting because each line represents an individual set of unique things." She compared it to trying to cure genetic diseases by only studying white males.

Reports say it might take time before we see any advances in medicine as a result of increased funding for embryonic stem cell research.