Stem Cells and the Global Revolution in Science and Medicine

William Hoffman

Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

& MBBNet

University of Minnesota Medical School

hoffm003@umn.edu

St. John’s University/College of St. Benedict

Dec. 17, 2004

This work is a communications project of William Hoffman, a non-faculty employee of the University of Minnesota, and not the University of Minnesota. It is meant to help inform public discussion of stem cell research.

Leonardo da VinciThe Infant in the Womb, 1512

Homunculus, the Little Man, 1694

Nicolaas Hartsoeker

Embryonic stem cells from a human blastocyst are isolated and grown in cell culture,1998

Illustration: Howard Hughes Medical Institute via Monash University in Melbourne, the National University of Singapore, and the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem

Origin of Agriculture

Origin of Industrialization

Stem Cell Research: Global Competition

Countries in brown rank highly in the Global Competitiveness Index, 2004-2005, World Economic Forum. Circles indicate bioclusters.

Stem Cell Research: Global Competition

Select Global Stem Cell Research Centers 2004

Stem Cell Research: Global Competition

World Stem Cell Maphttp://mbbnet.umn.edu/scmap.html

Countries colored in brown, representing more than 3 billion people, have a permissive / flexible policy on embryonic stem cell research. All have banned human reproductive cloning.

Map of World Religions

Attitudes toward stem cell research reflect in part religious and cultural experience. Public policy across the globe is wide ranging and fragmented, a result of conflicting scientific, ethical, and economic beliefs and interests.

Map © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Food for Thought

If the United States continues to restrict activity in the sector, it will slow down this global diffusion, but it cannot stop it. As it becomes increasingly isolated, it will discourage its young scientists and technicians from pursuing U.S. careers.

If, on the other hand, the U.S. engages … in an orderly regulatory framework harmonized with the rest of the world, it will encourage a more rapid international diffusion of the technology.

Substitute “European Union” for “United States”“The Global Diffusion of Plant Biotechnology,”Runge and Ryan, 2004

Technology Diffusion and Moral Barriers