Michigan becomes leader in stem cell research | The Detroit News

Soon after Kate Jones married, she and her husband wanted to start their family.

But since the Michigan woman lives with an inherited genetic condition that she didnt want to pass onto her children, Jones who asked that her real name not be revealed used reproductive technologies to conceive a child. She wanted her children to be free of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a nerve disorder that affects muscles and leads to loss of balance.

Jones created several embryos with her husband through in vitro fertilization. Tests showed that half of the embryos had the gene linked to her disease. A doctor chose two of the embryos without the genetic mutation and implanted them in Jones, and now she and her husband have a healthy 2-year-old daughter.

Left over were five embryos with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease that the couple donated to stem cell researchers at the University of Michigan. With those embryos, U-M created its first disease-specific embryonic stem cell line and submitted it to the federal stem cell registry. Now, scientists in Wisconsin are using it to find better treatments for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

I believe strongly that stem cell research could ultimately cure many terrible diseases that leave people suffering and struggling and take loved ones from their families, said Jones, who spoke on condition that her name be withheld because she wants to shield her family from public controversies involving embryonic stem cell research.

Five years after Michigan voters loosened restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, the state has become a leader in the emerging science. Couples have donated embryos with genetic abnormalities to U-M, and researchers are creating human embryonic stem cell lines to represent disease models and submitting them to the federal registry.

Now, for the first time, scientists outside Michigan are accessing the lines created by U-M to study how diseases form and develop, with the aim of finding ways to better understand, treat, delay and possibly even cure diseases.

When you look at these as a scientific resource, they are everlasting, said Gary Smith, co-director of the U-M Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies. Its not just how we distribute today, but what happens in the future.

But Jones desire for anonymity illustrates the controversial nature of embryonic stem cell research.

Many oppose the research, which involves the destruction of an embryo that could be viable but has genetic abnormalities and would not be used for reproduction. Yet opponents have not been pressing the Michigan Legislature on the issue since Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, supports embryonic stem cell research, said Ed Rivet, legislative director of Right to Life of Michigan.

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Michigan becomes leader in stem cell research | The Detroit News