Sponsored by the Office for History of Science and Technology (UC Berkeley)
And the History of Health Sciences Program (UCSF)
Jane Maienschein
Arizona State University
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Translation and Transplantation: Stem Cells in History
The U.S. federal government and many states have considered and will continue to debate legislation either to endorse and fund or to prohibit stem cell research. President George W. Bush has expressed his opposition through an Executive Order to prohibit using federal funds for human embryonic stem cell research. Why? Do they even know what are they talking about? And why all the fuss? In fact, the term "stem cells" was first introduced in the 1890s, and the first stem cell experiment was done by Ross Harrison when he transplanted neuroblast cells into a tissue culture in 1907. This was the first successful culture of tissues outside the body ever, and it was done with frog cells but set research on track toward human cultures of cells and tissues. A rich history of studies of cell and tissue transplantation followed and has led to current stem cell research. Today the NIH demands "translation" of laboratory research into clinical therapies. In all this fuss and bother, is there anything new under the sun? What is at issue with today's research, and what can we learn from the past efforts to turn from transplantation research to translational results?
4:00PM
Monday, December 4, 2006
140 Barrows Hall
UC Berkeley
Co-Sponsored by the Science, Technology, and Society Center
Office for History of Science and Technology, 543 Stephens Hall #2350
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2350
tel: (510) 642-4581, e-mail: ohst@berkeley.edu
