December 2004 - Materials Science Institute - University of Oregon

SA 50
(policy leader of the year)
Douglas A. Melton
Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences,
Harvard University, and investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Advocated and enabled more extensive studies of embryonic stem cells.
Last year Douglas Melton made a discovery that both
advanced the understanding of diabetes and cast doubt on
an argument the Bush administration had used to defend its
tight restrictions on federally funded research into embryonic
stem cells. He has used this result to advance his strong
opposition to the policy and to mobilize still more private
resources to keep the fi eld alive in this country.
Stem cells from human embryos, such as the one above, are at the center of a debate over
scientifi c research. Douglas Melton’s fi nding that adult stem cells do not give rise to insulinforming
cells undercuts the rationale for a ban on research with embryonic stem cells.
Melton found evidence that the insulin-forming beta cells of
the pancreas reproduce by simple division in the mature phase
rather than descending from a progenitor, the adult stem
cell. The fi nding was extraordinarily important for diabetes
research, which is looking for sources of beta cells that will
be accepted by the immune systems of patients with type 1
diabetes who lack such cells and must therefore inject insulin.
Now it seems that workers in search of
transplantable tissue will have to culture
either fully mature cells or fully
immature ones—that is, embryonic
stem cells. The discovery therefore
undermines the administration’s argument
that adult stem cells could readily
fi ll in for the embryonic kind.
Melton’s scientifi c eminence has made
him a particularly effective opponent
of the administration’s near ban on
funding embryo research. Not only
has he argued against it in congressional
testimony and other public forums,
he has found ways to work around it.
In March he announced the establishment
of 17 new lines of embryonic cells,
a feat that nearly doubled the number
of usable lines available since the Bush
policy took effect. He has since established
fi ve more lines. The work was
onerous because it had to be done with
private funds he helped to raise. It was
performed in new laboratories that
had never received any federal support.
This spring the governing authority for
these endeavors was unveiled under the
name of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
Melton will serve as its co-director.
His own focus, however, will be
diabetes, a fi eld which he entered after
his two children were diagnosed with
the disease.
58 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN DECEMBER 2004
COPYRIGHT 2004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
RICK FRIEDMAN PHOTOGRAPHY (top); JEFF JOHNSON Hybrid Medical Animation ( bottom)