BioSpin: Why adult stem cell research successes get downplayed by the media.(reprint from nationalreview.com)

Editor's note. This essay first appeared in a slightly different form on the online publication nationalreview.com.

"Adult Stem Cell Breakthrough!" the headlines should have screamed. "Stunning Discovery Could Mean No Need to Use Embryos in Research." Unfortunately, with the notable exception of a front-page story in the Boston Globe, the mainstream media has significantly downplayed this potentially exciting scientific discovery.

Here's the scoop: As originally reported late last year in the medical journal Blood, Dr. Catherine M. Verfaillie and other researchers at the Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota, have discovered a way to coax an adult cell found in the bone marrow to exhibit many of the attributes that supposedly make embryonic stem cells irreplaceable to the development of future "miracle" medical therapies.

While there is still much research to be done, "multi-potent adult progenitor cells" (MAPCs) appear to be versatile, that is, capable of transforming into different types of tissues. (In a culture dish, the cells can be coaxed into becoming muscle, cartilage, bone, liver, or different types of neurons in the brain.) They are also malleable, meaning they can do so relatively easily. They also exhibit the "immortality" valued in embryonic cells, that is to say, they seem capable of being transformed into cell lines that can be maintained indefinitely. At the same time, these adult cells do not appear to present the acute danger associated with embryonic stem cells: the tendency to grow uncontrollably, causing tumors or even cancers.

This should be a big story considering the intense controversy over embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) and the coming attempt in the United States Senate to outlaw human cloning (S.790). Indeed, the New York Times and Washington Post consider embryonic stem cell research so important - - including the manufacture and use of human-clone embryos in such experiments -- that both have repeatedly editorialized in favor of turning the throttle full speed ahead on this immoral endeavor. Yet, when the potentially crucial discovery of an adult cell that could make embryonic destruction and "therapeutic" cloning unnecessary comes to light - - and just at the time when the United States Senate is about to argue whether to outlaw the cloning of human embryos -- other than the splendid Boston Globe article, the story has been significantly underplayed.

A New York Times story written by Nicholas Wade with Sheryl Gay Stolberg ran deep inside the paper (page A14), under the headline, "Scientists Herald a Versatile Adult Cell." While the Times headline and reporting focused upon the actual story, it failed to provide many of the significant details found in the Boston Globe report. As a result, the story lost much of its punch.

The Washington Post smothered the importance of the story altogether in a story bylined by Rick Weiss that ran on page A-8. Headlined, "In Senate, Findings Intensify Arguments on Human Cloning," the actual discovery itself is barely described. The first mention of it comes in the fourth paragraph, which focuses primarily on a statement by Verfaillie downplaying her own discovery so as not to interfere with the pro-cloning and ESCR research agenda. Indeed, the primary thrust of the Post reportage focuses on the reasons why this discovery should not deter destructive embryonic research.