Stem Cells and the Global Revolution in Science and Medicine William Hoffman Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology & MBBNet University of Minnesota Medical School [email protected]

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 Vinci The 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 Map

http://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

Technology Diffusion and Moral Barriers 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