Inside Wisconsin: There's more to the Institutes for Discovery than stem-cell research

Theres nothing new or even unexpected about the love-hate relationship between religion and science. The same Catholic Church that has often been a patron of the sciences think Gregor Mendel and the study of genetics, or Antoine Lavoisier and modern chemistry also found Galileo Galilei gravely suspect of heresy in 1633 for asserting Earth circled the sun.

That history of friction between science and theology resurfaced in Wisconsin recently with the announcement that the 7,400 children who attend schools in the Madison Catholic Diocese will no longer be taking field trips to the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. Thats because the facility on the UW-Madison campus conducts research using human embryonic stem cells.

The church has been pretty clear on how it feels about embryonic stem cells, so it shouldnt be all that surprising that it would draw a bright line about that particular discipline. Whether the rest of us like it or not, that position is consistent with the Catholic view that life begins at conception. For many in the church, it is a matter of faith.

A separate question is whether the Madison Diocese should officially limit student access to a whole range of scientific disciplines most of which have nothing to do with human embryonic stem cells taking place inside one of the nations leading research facilities.

Student field trips occur frequently at the Institutes, which opened in 2010 with a mix of private and public support. It is one of a relative handful of interdisciplinary research institutes in the nation, meaning its a place where discovery can be accelerated by interaction among researchers who may be chemists, biologists, computer scientists, engineers or physicists.

Some of those scientists work with stem cells, but its only a relative handful within the full spectrum of scientific activities in the institute, which includes the public Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and the private Morgridge Institute for Research.

Even among the scientists who work with stem cells, there are important distinctions. Human embryonic stem cell research was pioneered at the UW-Madison by James Thomson and his team but the campus was also one of two breakthrough sites in the world for the development of induced pluripotent stem cells. Those stem cells are essentially reverse engineered from other cells, usually skin cells, to perform like embryonic cells.

These types of stem cells are vital to understanding how the body works, how it might repair itself and in developing everything from new drugs to ways to combat birth defects.

In fact, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences held a workshop on stem cell research in 2012. The event focused on the potential of the induced pluripotent cells, which are among those being used by some researchers at the institute. Some researchers believe such cells could replace embryonic stem cells in time.

If the Pontifical Academy of Sciences was curious enough to learn more, one might think the Madison Diocese would also be open to the possibility that advances in stem cell science could someday negate faith-based questions.

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Inside Wisconsin: There's more to the Institutes for Discovery than stem-cell research