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More iPS mutation worries, the benefits of invasive species, Hwang evacuated from Libya

Bob Grant
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Today's news includes more mutations found in iPS cell lines, singing the praises of invasive species, studies highlight the need for women and children in drug development and clinical trials, another victory for the company selling a method for reconstructing breast tissue using a patient's own stem cells, and a disgraced South Korean stem cell researcher is evacuated from Libya.
More bad news for iPS cellsTwo studies published online in __Nature__ yesterday report that adult cells reprogrammed to behave like stem cells, so called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS, contain more mutations than normal cells, making their use as therapeutic agents more worrisome and less likely. One linkurl:study;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7336/full/nature09805.html found an average of six single base mutations in each of 22 iPS cell lines that were transformed using a variety of methods. The other linkurl:paper;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7336/full/nature09871.html reported that iPS cell lines had more copy number variations -- small deletions or duplications -- than the skin cells or embryonic stem cells from which they were derived. The findings come just a month after another study, as linkurl:reported;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57971/ by __The Scientist__, found "hotspots" in iPS cell genomes that were not completely reprogrammed, demonstrating a fundamental difference between iPS cells and true embryonic stem cells.When invasives ain't so badWhere would we be without the European Honeybee? This invasive species, introduced to North America in the 16th century, now pollinates crop plants -- from almonds and turnips to watermelons and pumpkins -- that produce billions of dollars worth of food every year. In a recently published paper, State University of New York biologist linkurl:Martin Schlaepfer;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57971/ notes that honeybees are just one species that actually benefits the ecosystems that they "invaded." In the paper, published on __Conservation Biology__'s website last week, Schlaepfer and colleagues argue that invasives get a bad rap from scientists, but over time, more and more will be viewed as benign or beneficial. (Hat tip to __Wired__.)Clinical research ignores women and childrenAre women and children underrepresented in clinical research? According to two recent publications the answer appears to be yes. A linkurl:study;http://circoutcomes.ahajournals.org/content/early/2011/03/01/CIRCOUTCOMES.110.958215.abstract in __Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes__ reports that clinical research on cardiac devices doesn't include enough women participants, who in many cases experience different safety or efficacy outcomes than men. Looking at the 78 cardiac devices that received FDA pre-market approval from 2000-2007, the study's authors found that of 123 studies, 28 percent didn't even report the sex of participants. Among the studies that did report gender, an average of 67 percent of trial participants were male. The picture isn't much brighter for children. In an linkurl:article;http://www.incresearch.com/Resource/Foresight/Foresight_201102-V4-Issue2.pdf published in the February edition of __Foresight__ -- the newsletter of contract research organization INC Research -- pediatrician Alexander Cvetkovich-Muntañola highlights an NIH finding that 70 percent of drugs given to children have only been tested in adults. This requires pediatricians to estimate proper doses for their young patients and prescribe drugs for off-label uses on a regular basis. While conducting clinical research on children presents ethical and regulatory challenges, Cvetkovich-Muntañola writes, new FDA policies are incentivizing pharmaceutical companies to do so. "The new legislation is forcing pharmaceutical companies to conduct pediatric studies as an integral part of the normal development of a medicine."Stem cell-built breasts pass another testA method for repairing cancer-damaged breast tissue by implanting stem cells from the patient's own fat has fared well in a year-long trial testing for patient and physician satisfaction. Eighty five percent of physicians and 75 percent of the 71 patients in the trial of Cytori Therapeutics' Celution method, which was approved for use in Europe last year, reported being satisfied with the procedure 12 months after treatment. This is good news for Cytori, which hopes to use the method to tap into a multi-billion dollar market for breast reconstruction in Europe and beyond. "The data is likely to increase physicians' confidence to use our method," Cytori president Marc Hedrick told linkurl:Dow Jones Newswires.;http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110302-707510.htmlHwang hanging with Libyan scientists?As incendiary events unfold in the troubled nation of Libya, foreigners are being whisked out of the country to safer neighboring states. Among them, Hwang Woo-suk, the infamous South Korean stem cell biologist who was busted in 2005 for faking studies in which he claimed to create human embryonic stem cells by cloning. According to __The Korea Herald__, Hwang was evacuated from Libya along with nearly 200 other South Koreans last Friday. Apparently, the researcher was in Libya for what was supposed to be a two-week visit to one of the country's state research institutes to talk to other scientists about cloning and bioengineering.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:The iPSC-ESC gap;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57971/
[2nd February 2011]*linkurl:Bee calamity clarified;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55919/
[24th August 2009]*linkurl:All Hwang human cloning work fraudulent;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/22933/
[10th January 2006]
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Meet the Author

  • Bob Grant

    From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer.
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