Research Motivations for Stem Cell Research

Abstract

Chapter 2 points out that scientists’ enquiries about stem cell regulatory guidance have gradually gained prominence among Chinese ethicists and regulators since 2000. This need, voiced by different laboratories, correlates with an expanding number of stem cell researchers in China. Among the 38 Chinese researchers I interviewed, only five were associated with stem cell-related research prior to 1995: one worked on the pathology of atherosclerosis, one on infertility treatment and three on stem cell transplant curing leukemia. Yet all five interviewees suggested that their early engagements with stem cells were more or less a coincidence or a‘side-effect’ of their main research topic.¹ It was not until after the birth of Dolly the sheep that ‘stem cell’ became a buzzword and an expanding sub-discipline in biomedical research. During the decade that followed, many proficient researchers switched their focus to stem cells, meanwhile new graduates also joined this force. The number of stem cell researchers escalated. Scientists interviewed frequently used such phrases in describing the popularity of stem cell practice: ‘a lot of people are doing it’ (SSC05) or ‘it’s been carried out everywhere’ (JSC07). On mentioning the commercialization of experimental stem cell therapies, one associated professor (SSC21) said: ‘So many [institutions] are doing them … it seems as if it has been “mass popularized (quanmin puji)”’. In witnessing a fast-expanding field, one immediate question that came to mind was: what did Chinese scientists see in stem cells that motivated them to investigate this area? In other words, why did they take up stem cell research?