Doha
23 March 2009
The British mega-brand Virgin has launched a stem-cell bank in Qatar. The country has lofty goals of becoming the world leader in stem cell technologies, and unlike in the West, Qatar does not face some of the ethical issues surrounding stem-cell research.
Qatar's Emir and his wife at research center opening |
Branson came to Qatar to open the Virgin Health Bank, the first in the region that collects stem cells from the umbilical cord blood of newborns.
"Qatar is a trusting exciting country, it has leaders with great vision," Branson said.
Qatar scientists in lab |
A portion of those stem cells will be banked for that infant's future use in the event of medical needs. The remainder will be stored at a national public center for research and use by any patient with a matching tissue type. Cord-blood stem cells are used to treat leukemia as well as other blood-related illnesses.
Umbilical-cord blood sample |
Though Virgin is only storing umbilical-cord blood stem cells, Qatar's scientists are open to working with the more controversial embryonic stem cells. Pro-life groups oppose the creation of embryonic stem lines because they require the destruction of a human embryo.
Laurie Zoloth |
"Their position is that stem-cell research is always illicit, it cannot be done because it involves the destruction of a human embryo and a human embryo is a full person from the moment of conception," she said.
Dr. Hanan Al-Kuwari |
"Islam is a very modern religion and it really embraces science and it does not have some of the controversial issues that are in the West around stem-cell research," she said.
At a stem cell research conference in Qatar there was optimism about President Obama's recent lifting of the ban on the use of U.S. government funds for embryonic stem-cell research that was imposed by the Bush administration.
Tim Caulfield |
"Having a global policy on stem cell research is going to be a real challenge, even though we have seen Obama's announcement, even though we have seen exciting stem cell breakthroughs that seem to deal with some of the controversial issues, there is still a great moral divide," Caulfield said.
Richard Branson |
"This cord-blood bank could actually end up being larger than the U.K.'s cord-blood bank quite quickly, I think," he said.
Millions of dollars have gone into the technology park and well-known institutes, such as Cornell University's biomedical research program, have opened in Doha. Qataris say that bodes well for their goal to become a magnet for top medical research.