The stem cell wars: a dispatch from the front

The development of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines in 1998 offered the prospect of a new era of regenerative medicine in which cell therapy might cure intractable diseases such as type 1 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injury. The Bush Administration decision in 2001 to restrict federal funding of hESC research touched off a controversy that continues to the present. One response to the Bush policy was establishment of state stem cell research funding programs, notably the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). As Director of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and Vice Chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stem Cell Task Force, and now as a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Funding Board and member of an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee charged with evaluation of the CIRM, I have had the opportunity to gain a first-hand perspective of the field. Here I present my impressions of the legal and science policy debates and selectively summarize research progress toward the hoped-for cures.