Lutz Giebel is at the nucleus of nations debate on embryonic stem cells for research

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My daughter, whose 5 year old daughter ( our cutie) has Type 1 Diabetes, sent me this post from their Digest......interesting!!! Joanne C.

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Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 11:20 AM

Subject: CyThera CEO says embryonic stem cells hold key to cure.htm

I thought this was interesting....five years and a cure? I pray.....

Friday April 05 09:04 PM EST CyThera CEO says embryonic stem cells hold key to cure

Molecular biologist Lutz Giebel is at the nucleus of one of the nation's top scientific and ethical debates: the use of embryonic stem cells for research.

He's a co-founder and recently appointed chief executive officer of CyThera Inc., a La Jolla biotechnology company that late last year found itself on a much-anticipated National Institutes of Health (news - web sites) top-10 list: the entities eligible for federal funding under President Bush (news - web sites)'s stem cell research criteria.

CyThera has nine eligible stem cells lines, more than any other entity in the country. Of the 10 laboratories that have derived human embryonic stem cells that meet the president's criteria, CyThera is only topped by Sweden's Goteborg University, which reported 19 stem cell lines.

Still, CyThera's lines are too new to be passed on to federally funded scientists for research. The stem cells are derivations and need to be characterized first, which is a lengthy process, Giebel said in a recent telephone interview from his San Francisco-area home.

"That's something that gets lost on the media, and even the registry," he said. "We want to make sure we work out the technology first."

The company is limited, too, by what it can do with the stem cell lines. The University of Wisconsin -- where, incidentally, Giebel did his postdoctoral studies in human genetics -- holds a number of U.S. patents on human embryonic stem cells since being the first to isolate the cells some three years ago. Giebel says CyThera is being careful not to infringe on those patents.

Instead, the private biotechnology company is focused on developing cell replacement therapies to treat human degenerative disease, such as liver disease, Parkinson's disease (news - web sites), macular degeneration, and stroke.

CyThera's first product will be allogenic, or donor, cell replacement therapy, company officials said. It's a cell transplant product produced from human embryonic stem cells to treat severe diabetics (news - web sites) and immune-suppressed diabetic patients.

The diabetes treatment will likely be in the lab for two years, with a product launch possible in five years, Giebel said. Based on previous research, Giebel says it very well may be the cure for a large patient population.

"It's definitely going to be a medical revolution," he said. "I firmly believe it will happen.

"It's an area that is very promising, and someone will be very successful. It's our job to make sure it's CyThera."

Giebel, C.R. , and Ross launched CyThera about two years ago; Giebel replaced Ross as CEO in January. Both Giebel and Ross come from MetaXen and Arris Pharmaceuticals, now Celera Genomics (news - web sites) Group. Giebel was founder and vice president of research and development at MetaXen, and was senior director of molecular biology at Arris. Ross was founder, president and CEO of both MetaXen and Arris. Ross, now a general partner with Schroder Ventures Life Sciences, maintains a seat on CyThera's board of directors. , also a board director, is a professor of cell and molecular biology at Northwestern University Medical School.

Embryonic stem cells are most useful in cell replacement therapy because they're more easily manipulated than adult stem cells, Giebel says. And stem cells are more plentiful than donor organs, he said.

Stem cells are often described as cells that haven't been "switched on," and so can become almost any kind of tissue. If cultured with special proteins, scientists say the cells could evolve into any of the body's 220 or so cell types, including heart, muscle, liver, brain and other tissue.

Though embryonic stem cells are believed to be the most versatile, they are also the most controversial because they are harvested from fertility clinic freezers, aborted fetuses, cloning or made-to-order in a petri dish.

President Bush drew the line on what kinds of stem cell research is eligible for federal funding in August of last year. He stipulated that the stem cells be derived from an embryo that was created for reproductive purposes but was no longer needed. Such is the case with CyThera's research.

The controversy in the U.S. is nothing compared to the unreceptive environment Giebel experienced in his native Germany. While working on his Ph.D. at Germany's University of Heidelberg, Giebel saw first-hand the negative reaction Germans have toward biotechnology: bomb threats, demonstrations, and wire-tapping by police.

"It's very different," he said. "The hostility in Germany was widespread and real."

Giebel says people in the United States are more supportive of stem cell research. Regardless of where they stand on abortion, those in the U.S. tend to make a distinction between cells obtained from discarded fertility clinic embryos and aborted fetuses.

"These in general are very nasty diseases," he said of those possibly treated by the research. "Everyone has a family member that is affected by one of these diseases.

"My personal view is, if it's between throwing it out or deriving a cell, the moral choice is clear."

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Just The Facts:

The company: CyThera Inc.

The boss: Lutz Giebel, chief executive officer and co-founder

Employees: 10

Capital raised: $4.5 million

Capital sought: $12 million

Address: 3550 General Atomics Court, Bldg. 2-503, San Diego, CA 92121

Telephone: (858) 455-3708

Fax: (858) 455-3962

Web site: www.cytheraco.com

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