Support Alternatives
Do No Harm regularly receives requests from individuals interested to contribute to organizations or direct research initiatives that only fund research on adult stem cells or ethical alternatives to human embryonic stem cells. The following are listed as merely suggestive based on the kind of research they are engaged in, and thus does not offer an endorsement of the organization or an assessment of the organization as a charitable entity.
John Pall II Stem Cell Institute
The John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute (JP2SRI) is a non-profit research institute whose mission is to advance research and education on stem cell research in a manner consistent with a pro-life bioethics. The Institute strictly focuses on adult and cord blood stem cell research and education. The Institute’s goal is to focus on reducing the barriers to translate basic research into clinical research. JP2SRI mission is to coordinate research activities between the Institute, academia and industry and to find treatment solutions for patients with chronic disorders that could potentially benefit from adult and umbilical cord stem cells.
The Institute represents an opportunity for pro-life Christians to support ethical-derived stem cell research consistent with pro-life values. JP2SRI DOES NOT conduct human embryonic stem cell research and does not perform therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer.
The majority of donations are directed toward research and education. There is low administrative overhead.
John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute
www.jp2sri.org/
The following foundations, addressing spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s and diabetes, are raising money to support research using adult stem cells and adult cell therapies to treat these diseases. They do not fund embryonic stem cell research.
Spinal Cord Injury
Dr. Jean Peduzzi Nelson, of Wayne State University School of Medicine in Michigan, is researching the use of adult stems cells derived from olfactory tissue for the treatment of spinal cord injury. Published reports from a trial already conducted with human patients in Portugal have shown promising results from this approach. With a group of clinicians, Dr. Peduzzi is helping to prepare the FDA application to begin clinical trials here in the United States. If you wish to contribute to Dr. Peduzzi’s efforts to treat spinal cord injured patients, please make your check out to “Wayne State University” and specify in a cover letter and on the check that you wish the money to go to the “Peduzzi Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund”. These funds will be only used on research to develop and evaluate treatments for spinal cord injury. You can also specify that it only be used in adult stem cell research, as this is Dr. Peduzzi’s main focus. Upon receipt of the check, you will be mailed information so that this donation can be used as a tax deduction. Please mail your check (made out to “Wayne State University”) to:
Dr. Jean Peduzzi Nelson 8137
Scott Hall School of Medicine
Wayne State University
540 E. Canfield Avenue
Detroit, MI 48201
Further information about Dr. Peduzzi’s research can be found at: (www.med.wayne.edu/anatomy/) under research faculty.
Parkinson’s Disease
The Thomas Hartman Foundation for Parkinson’s Research was founded by Father Tom Hartman. Many will know Father Hartman as co-host, along with Rabbi Marc Gellman, of radio and TV’s popular “God Squad.”
Father Hartman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s which led him to establish The Hartman Foundation. The foundation excludes any funding for human embryonic stem cell research and supports research using adult stem cells to treat Parkinson’s.
Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes
The Iacocca Foundation , through its “Join Lee” campaign, is raising money to support the research of Harvard’s Dr. Denise Faustman. Dr. Faustman and her team at Massachusetts General Hospital have received FDA approval to begin human trials of an adult cell therapy that reverses Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes in animals.
Although the researchers are ready to test this very promising approach in patients, millions of dollars are needed for human trials—and some major foundations are devoting much of their funding to research that relies on destroying human embryos instead.
The Iacocca Foundation has contributed $1 million for human trials using the Faustman approach, and is asking one million Americans to help by donating $10 each.
The Iacocca Foundation and the “Join Lee” Campaign:
www.iacoccafoundation.org
Auto-Immune Disorders
Dr. Richard Burt, M.D., of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, is using adult stem cells primarily to treat patients with auto-immune disorders, including such disorders as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, scleroderma, Crohns disease, myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory autoimmune polyneuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune related retinitis and optic neuritis, pemphigus, and other immune-mediated disorders.
In 2007, Dr. Burt, along with a team of Brazilian doctors, led a groundbreaking study that used adult stem cells to reverse Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes in patients. That study was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 4/11/07 (see also www.newscientist.com/article/dn11571-rebuilt-immune-system-shakes-off-diabetes.html).
Dr. Burt’s most recent article, “Clinical Applications of Blood-Derived and Marrow-
derived Stem Cells for Nonmalignant Diseases” (Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA), 2/27/2008), examined hundreds of studies that were conducted
between January 1997 and December 2007, and found that therapies using blood- or
bone-marrow derived stem cells can successfully and safely treat heart disease and
autoimmune disorders (see: pubs.ama-assn.org/media/2008j/0226.dtl and
www.stemcellresearch.org/press/2008-02-27_JAMA.pdf).
On March 13th, 2008, Dr. Burt participated at a Capitol Hill briefing that also included several of Dr. Burt’s patients who had been successfully treated with their own adult stem cells for lupus, scleroderma, and multiple sclerosis. You can read their stories at www.stemcellresearch.org/testimony/capitalhill_briefing.html.
If you would like to make a tax deductible contribution to Dr. Burt’s research in treating patients with adult stem cells, you may contact his division manager, Kate Quigley, at
k-quigley@northwestern.edu for further information and assistance.