At the end of August 2006, the biologists working under Dr. Robert Lanza for Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) announced in the journal Nature that they were able to produce human embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryos used. Three months later, Nature returned to this publication and this time, the researchers added a series of “clarifications”, which simply served to cast doubt and problems on the work accomplished.
When questioned about this, Dr. Robert Lanza made a few things clear. “When we released our publication in August,” he explained, “Nature’s press office sent an erroneous press release to certain journalists. According to standard Nature procedure, the authors cannot view the text and so we were not able to reread it before publication. We did not send any new information in November. We only clarified certain points that would have been evident upon reading the article.”
In Dr. Lanza’s opinion, following the scandal surrounding South Korean Hwang—which was also related to the production of human embryonic stem cells—Nature knew that the submitted article would be examined with a fine-tooth comb. He said it was “put under the microscope” and that its content was deemed “beyond reproach” by international experts.
“This has nothing to do with the Hwang affair, which was fraud pure and simple,” the biologist added. “But some journalists seem to take false or ambiguous information at face value. The truth is that, following a critical reevaluation and rereading by peers, proofreaders and editors, no mistakes were found in the manuscript despite disinformation prevailing, the product of amalgamating politics and science.”
In practice, the addenda published by Nature at the end of November 2006 did not amount to any modification of a scientific nature. “The only significant change was the integration of an additional table in the “paper” article, which already appeared in the “online” version,” explained Robert Lanza. “But no one had predicted the media storm generated by this.”
Today, he confirms that his team can produce lines of human embryonic stem cells without destroying the embryos. “I recently presented data on this subject to the National Academy of Sciences in Washington,” the biologist states. “I presented stem cells taken from eight-cell embryos via withdrawal of a single cell. The embryos were not destroyed and have continued to develop. They are currently frozen at a stage of development of five days and remain potentially alive to the same extent as all frozen embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics.”
ACT is today running a series of preclinical studies with the aim of demonstrating that human embryonic stem cells can be used to treat serious illnesses, notably cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative eye diseases.
Jean-Yves Nau
Article from the edition published 01.05.07
Le Monde
Jean-Yves Nau
ACTC News LeMonde Lanza Confirmation.pdf
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