For more information contact:
Colly Mitchell, Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Contact Colly Mitchell colly.mitchell@ibb.gatech.edu
404-894-5982
McDevitt and Nerem Discuss Georgia Stem Cell Research Debate
Atlanta (September 1, 2009) — "Cell Division"
Georgia Trend - September 2009
.. . It’s a debate fraught with irony. Georgia has some of the nation’s leading researchers in the area of embryonic stem cells, scientists recruited and paid for by the state as eminent scholars; and state leadership has identified the life sciences as a strategic industry of interest. And yet, many of Georgia’s elected officialshave made it clear that they do not want new research in embryonic stem cells happening in Georgia,... “Induced pluripotent cells are a great success story, but it’s owed wholly to the fact that we had a starting basis in embryonic stem cells,” says Todd McDevitt, a Georgia Tech scientist who directs stem cell technology research in his lab and focuses most of his attention on ES cells... For Georgia Tech professor Bob Nerem, research needs to move forward in all areas. “At some point we will know about what makes the most sense from a patient point of view,” says Nerem, director of both the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Tech, and the Georgia Tech-Emory Collabora-tion for Regenerative Medicine (GTEC)... But for a young scientist like Todd McDevitt, whose lab at Georgia Tech has attracted some $2 million in federal funds and employs 10 other researchers, a differing opinion that has the potential to criminalize his work forces him to consider other options.
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McDevitt lab
Nerem lab
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation's premier research universities. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities, Georgia Tech's more than 19,000 students are enrolled in its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Management and Sciences. Tech is among the nation's top producers of women and African-American engineers. The Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the Georgia Tech Research Institute.