U.S. Cloning Pioneer Resigns To Accept University Position

Antonio Regalado
Wall Street Journal
November 11, 2002

A U.S. scientist who said he was the first to create human embryos via cloning is leaving the research program behind in order to join the faculty of Michigan State University.

The career move, by Argentine-born researcher Jose B. Cibelli, 39 years old, marks the end of a tumultuous chapter for Advanced Cell Technology Inc., the closely held biotechnology company in Worcester, Mass., whose efforts to create cloned human embryos have been assailed as immoral by the Bush administration.

Michigan State, in East Lansing, Mich., said Friday that Dr. Cibelli had accepted an appointment as a professor of animal biotechnology.

Due to a Michigan law that outlaws human-cloning research, Dr. Cibelli won't be able to continue his studies of human embryos at the school. "He's not going to be doing anything that goes against the state legislature, the president or the National Institutes of Health," said Lonnie King, dean of Michigan State's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Normally, scientists seek intellectual freedom in academia and financial rewards from industry. But Advanced Cell, where Dr. Cibelli was vice president for research, had difficulty matching the offer by Michigan State, which in its first year calls for more than $1 million in start-up funding and salaries for a half-dozen researchers to work under Dr. Cibelli.

The departure is a blow to Advanced Cell, where Dr. Cibelli had been responsible for a series of cloning successes. In 1998, Dr. Cibelli produced George and Charlie, the first genetically enhanced cloned calves.

Last year, the company began its effort to clone human embryos in order to extract their stem cells, an approach known as therapeutic cloning. The process may hold out hope for patients in need of a transplant of nerves or other replacement cells, as it could theoretically generate a youthful source of tissue genetically identical to their own.

"I'm convinced therapeutic cloning will work, and that it will be a huge industry," said Dr. Cibelli, who called his decision to withdraw from the project extremely difficult.

Last November, Advanced Cell published a paper describing its initial efforts to clone human embryos. However, other scientists have attacked that work as media-seeking and unsuccessful.

Amid the general market downturn, biotechnology firms developing cell-based transplant treatments have fared particularly poorly. Competitor Infigen Inc. of DeForest, Wis., recently reduced its work force, as has cloning-pioneer PPL Therapeutics. Advanced Cell's medical director, Robert Lanza, said that, due to a shortage of funds, Dr. Cibelli's therapeutic cloning project had been on hold since early this year. To raise cash, the company recently sold off its cattle-cloning subsidiary, Cyagra LLC, to the Goyaike SA division of Perez Companc, an Argentine conglomerate.

Dr. Lanza said Advanced Cell planned to press ahead with therapeutic cloning, but would first have to raise additional investments and rebuild its scientific team. "We are going to have to produce product or we are not going to survive," he said.

In cloning, a skin cell or other cell from an adult is placed inside an egg and manipulated to form an embryo. Following the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1997, fears that humans could be cloned led several states to enact anticloning legislation. Michigan's law, passed in 1998, provides criminal penalties for cloning to make babies as well as laboratory research.

Dr. Cibelli's appointment still needs to be voted on by Michigan State's board of trustees, a process that is normally a formality. The university and Advanced Cell also are working through complex intellectual-property issues. Many of the techniques Dr. Cibelli uses have been patented by the company.

In a mission statement he provided the university, Dr. Cibelli wrote that "no human embryos will be created nor destroyed at MSU." However, professors are allowed to spend one day a week on outside activities, leaving open the possibility that Dr. Cibelli could continue his work on therapeutic cloning in another state. According to Dr. Cibelli, officials at Michigan State told him: "We're not going to ask what you do with 20% of your time."