The Stem Cell

Read my full review on new stem cell books in this month’s issue of Nature. Navigate to the review under the news tab on Nature Reports Stem Cells.

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by Christopher Scott

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve updated TSC’s Read page, but if you’re looking for holiday gift ideas or hankering for a good read about stem cells, you’re in luck. Two new titles join a growing group of volumes examining stem cell research through different lenses. For an account of the controversies surrounding patents and law, read Russell Korobkin’s new book, Stem Cell Century (Yale University Press). It explains the profound effects of law and policy on stem cell research and regulation. Korobkin, a UCLA professor of law, demonstrates how a formerly quiet corner of biology has exploded into new realms of intellectual property, commerce and international affairs. My favorite chapters focus on stem cell patents and the potential paybacks for big science initiatives like CIRM. Deeper dives into the ethics of buying and selling human tissues, and how they impact egg donation, are worth reading. A small quibble: Stem Cell Century is uneven in places, switching among lawyerly, academic and journalistic styles.

The editors of Fundamentals of the Stem Cell Debate (Kristen Renwick Monroe, Ronald B. Miller and Jerome Tobis, eds. University of California Press) offer a book addressing the complexities of stem cell research and the swarm of disciplines busily dissecting its scientific and medical impacts: law, ethics, policy, and commerce. And who better to ask to write chapters than a group of scientists and academics that do it for a living.

There is much to like here because the authors don’t hesitate to tackle difficult subjects, such as what we should do about the ethics of clinical trials: the first experiments that will put stem cells into people. This subject is uncharted waters for biomedical ethics, and the research and comment is just emerging. Fundamentals gives you a peek at what scholars think, especially how scientists, unaccustomed to defending their work in very public ways, articulate arguments for supporting an area of biology that is, for all intents and purposes, on a tear.

How can someone navigate among the profusion of books on stem cells? My advice is to read two or three. Recent releases include books on activism, politics, religion, ethics, popular science, and for the adventuresome reader, a couple of game efforts at writing introductory texts.

On the last point, there are a few reasons we don’t yet have a good introduction for high school and university curricula—something I bump up against when planning my classes at Stanford. First, the field is still pretty new. Second, the subject cuts across the tried-and-true developmental and cell biology texts—faculty aren’t so willing to take a chance on something new. Finally, a good introduction should include chapters on ethics, law and society. A hybrid may not fit neatly into a publisher’s marketing plan. But I predict we’ll see the first textbook by a major press soon enough.