Eideard

It was a matter of horrible happenstance that brought the first human trial involving embryonic stem cells to Atlanta this month.

Teams at both Atlanta’s Shepherd Center and Northwestern University in Chicago were standing by to begin the historic trial, each awaiting a newly injured patient. Sometime in the 14 days before Oct. 8, someone, presumably in the South, suffered a paralyzing spine injury, signed the papers and became Patient A…

The procedure occurred at Piedmont Hospital, which adjoins Shepherd. The patient’s name, age and sex are unknown…

A confluence of factors has turned Georgia into a top-tier state for biotech research and development. There are learning centers such as Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia and Emory University, a pro-business climate that includes top-notch hospitals and the utility of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, among others.

The state’s growing stature in the field is further evidenced by another historic first set to occur at Emory University this week — the injection of fetal stem cells into the spine of an ambulatory ALS patient.

These trials, and the medical leaps they could produce, however, take place against a backdrop of divided public opinion on such research. Voices opposing the use of embryonic stem cells on ethical or moral grounds are strong in Georgia…

The experimental treatment being carried out at the Shepherd Center and run and funded by Geron Corp., a California company, verges on science fiction. Geron calls embryonic stem cells “immortal,” able to “divide endlessly in tissue culture.” Such cells are a blank slate, with the potential to turn into cells that build parts of the body. In this study, researchers hope the oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, which produce a substance called myelin, will recoat spinal nerve cells and transmit impulses.

“It’s historic,” said Hans S. Keirstead, a University of California Irvine neurobiologist, who developed a therapy that made paralyzed rats walk again and licensed it to Geron. This trial “symbolizes the transition from discussion and thought in the ivory towers to real action in the clinic.”

The Atlanta patient is the first of 10 paralysis victims Geron plans to study nationwide. Its aim is not to get patients walking; it’s simply to see if the cells can be safely injected into the spine and then to determine if those cells grow normally in the body…

Geron selected the Shepherd Center, Keirstead said, because it is “perhaps the most outstanding spinal cord rehabilitation center in North America.”…

The Shepherd-based trial is groundbreaking, but not the first time stem cells have been injected into a human spine.

That first happened nine months ago when Dr. Nicholas Boulis, a neurosurgeon at Emory, injected fetal stem cells into a patient with ALS, a disease that kills the nerve cells in the spine that control muscles. Since then, Boulis, who is working in conjunction with Maryland-based Neuralstem Inc., has performed five more such procedures…

Emory neurosurgeon Boulis understands many people say embryo cells can become a human and, therefore, should have rights. But he notes that they are frozen in liquid nitrogen and do not suffer, he said, getting a bit angry when talking about ALS patients who ultimately die of asphyxiation. “But it’s illegal to use [embryonic cells] to save someone drowning in his own saliva?”

Exciting stuff.

Ignore the objections of the devout. Except in court, of course. There, fight them like hell.