The name may be familiar. Eggan is assistant professor in Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and his creation of ALS disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) lines was called by TIME the top medical breakthrough of 2008. He did it by deriving the spinal motor neurons from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).
Don't get all excited, George Bush doesn't suddenly hate unborn babies. But he recognized that good work is being done with hESC research and it's time for us to start recognizing that placing restrictions on new lines wasn't the death knell of biology. If anything, it made biology even more creative, witnessed by Science naming the work of Eggan and associates as its “Breakthrough of the Year: Reprogramming Cells.”
Kevin Eggan. Photo credit: B. D. Colen/Harvard News Office
We all knew the restrictions on hESC research would be lifted - both McCain and Obama said they would lift them - but what we can't know is what impact they really had and whether they really made a difference in our progress. It's partisan speculation and comments will come down on predictable political party lines. Regardless, Eggan's work, done within the rules, showed some of the promise of hESC discovery.
To Eggan, his work is "important for stem cell science because one of the things we've been promising is that these stem cells would be important for drug discovery. We've produced industrial quantities of these motor neurons; we've shown that this does work, that you can overcome the technical limitations. This is a disease process in a petri dish" - exactly what science has been promising.
This accomplishes something the partisan shrieking and culture wars by people in science who just hate Republicans could never accomplish; it demonstrates the utility of hESC research in a way no one can deny. People can talk all they want about alternative types of cells, and Eggan has obviously been important in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technology, but we need to be able to pursue multiple approaches. Even his work in iPS was made possible by earlier hESC studies.
When it comes to science issues that exist in a grey area of morality and policy, it's okay to take baby steps until we are sure. Barack Obama was not the big victory for biology in 2008, Kevin Eggan was - and an accolade by George Bush, regarded as an enemy of biology for placing restrictions on a technology that only existed two years when he was elected, is the surest sign that he is not an enemy of science, he is a friend to his conscience. We can't fault that just because his conscience happens to disagree with ours.
I don't mean to leave out the other young investigators also given awards by President Bush. I am hopeful other sites and schools are giving them their due. But Eggan's work , and his reward, resonates with our audience in an important way so I wanted to highlight it here.
Cellular alchemy and George Bush giving awards to stem cell researchers? It's the kind of magic that science can believe in.
