Speakers included Richard Garr, chief executive officer of Neuralstem, Inc.; and Tricia Brooks, managing director for Alliance Development at Biotechnology Industry Organization. Daniel S. Mariaschin, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith, gave the introduction and Mark Olshan, associate executive vice president of B’nai B’rith and director of the Center for Senior Services, moderated the discussion.

Olshan introduced the topic of stem cell research, and explained that Judaism promotes the idea of pikuach nefesh which says that people should do whatever they can to save or repair a life. B’nai B’rith has long been a proponent of research of responsible stem cell treatments that have the potential to help and possibly even cure patients with degenerative diseases.

“It’s important for people of faith who find [stem cell research] consistent with their faith to speak out,” Olshan said.

Both Brooks and Garr explained how adult stem cells such as those extracted from bone marrow can only differentiate into a specific organ. Embryonic stem cells, however, have the potential to divide and differentiate into any organ. It is possible to eventually use a patient’s own cells to create transplant organs that won’t be rejected by their own body.

Some promising new research involves neural stem cells—stem cells that have the potential to produce new neurons. Neuralstem, Inc., will conduct a trial this year on 18 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) patients in Atlanta. The trial will inject neural stem cells into the patients’ spinal cords to repair and replace damaged cells.

Cells such as blood, skin, or bone can regenerate in a healthy person. Neurodegenerative diseases are so difficult to treat because human bodies have only one set of neurons for an entire lifetime; once they die, they can’t be replaced.

The most immediate application of stem cell research involves drug screening. The best way to test the safety and efficacy of certain drugs on brain tissue, which doesn’t regenerate, is to test them on stem cells in a petri dish.

Garr hopes to see stem cells used in Parkinson’s patients to replace or repair lost neurons; diabetic patients to create pancreatic cells to produce insulin; and to provide patients with an overall better quality of life.

Brooks spoke about the political difficulties in garnering widespread support for stem cell research.

“We’ve been caught in the political debate,” she said. “Under the Bush administration, there was a moratorium on any federal funds for [stem cell research]. Now with Obama, I hope more money goes to infrastructure and research.”

She also said in addition to advocating on Capitol Hill and to scientists on behalf of continuous research, “we also have to support the industry, not just politics.”

However, it will be still be slow-going to get funding for everything.

“We’re not quite in the Stone Age but we’re sitting around the fire knocking stones to get this thing moving,” Garr said.