Stem Cell Partnership: Patient Advocates And Scientists At The International Society For Stem Cell Research Convention

STEM CELL PARTNERSHIP: Patient Advocates and Scientists at the International Society for Stem Cell Research Convention By Don C. Reed This year's International Society for Stem Cell Researchers (ISSCR) conference was enormous, three vast floors of San Francisco's magnificent Moscone West convention center. As a watering hole brings animals together, the ISSCR concentrates the world's top stem cell scientists. From around the world they came, four thousand of them this year, representing almost sixty countries. Interspersed with them were patients and patient advocates, those who would benefit most from scientific advances, and those who make the science possible-- by fighting the endless battles for funding. For instance, Dr. Henry Klassen of UC Irvine spoke on his struggle to end a form of blindness called retinitis pigmentosa. Klassen is an acknowledged leader in the field. But what made the condition real for me was Kristin MacDonald, legally blind due to retinitis pigmentosa, who had to be helped up the stairs to the speaker's platform. An articulate speaker, she reminded us all why the fight must go on. And the money required to do the research? Klassen is funded by a grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) , the $3 billion stem cell program made possible by patient advocates. Let no one forget; it was a citizen's initiative, Proposition 71, led by patient advocate Bob Klein, which made that money available. Without patie...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news