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How House Republicans Derailed A Scientist Whose Research Could Save Lives

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A

Anarky

Banned
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/eugene-gu-research-congress_us_581a3d79e4b01a82df6460de

Dr. Eugene Gu, a 30-year-old surgical resident at Vanderbilt University, is on the verge of his second major scientific breakthrough.

While doing side research as a surgical intern in 2014, Gu became the first person to successfully implant the heart and kidney of a human fetus into a rat. The organs actually grew inside the rat and sustained its life ― a result that could have enormous implications for the treatment of life-threatening birth defects.

Gu, who was awarded a prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Research Fellowship when he was 25, says his ultimate goal is to transplant healthy fetal organs in utero to babies with fatal congenital diseases, so they can survive to adulthood with fully functioning hearts and kidneys. He also hopes to grow human organs in animals that biomedical researchers could then use to develop cures for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the world, and end-stage renal failure, the No. 1 reason patients are on transplant waiting lists.
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But Gu’s research hit a snag in April of this year when two armed United States marshals banged on the door of his studio apartment. It was 10 a.m, and Gu had been sleeping off an all-night trauma surgery shift at Vanderbilt hospital. He had no idea why the police would be at his house and he was afraid to let the marshals in.

“I know my rights,” Gu told the marshals. “I’m not going to open the door unless you have a warrant.”

“We don’t need a warrant,” one of the men replied. “This is a congressional subpoena.”

The subpoena had come from the House of Representatives’ Select Investigative Panel On Infants’ Lives, led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). Gu’s start-up research company, Ganogen, is one of more than 30 organizations being investigated by House Republicans over the use of fetal tissue from abortion clinics.
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Gu obtains the organs he uses in his research from StemExpress, a company that accepts fetal tissue donations from abortion providers and supplies it to biomedical researchers. Republicans in Congress have been on a mission to outlaw the practice, which they describe as “selling baby body parts,” since an anti-abortion activist produced a series of heavily edited “sting videos” on Planned Parenthood working with StemExpress in 2015. Planned Parenthood says it sometimes donates, but does not sell, fetal tissue for medical research after an abortion at the request of the mother. The family planning provider is then reimbursed for the costs of transporting and preserving the tissue, which is explicitly allowed by federal law.

Still, Gu’s association with StemExpress put him in the cross hairs of anti-abortion politicians, who demanded to see his emails, records of every financial transaction Ganogen made, names of all of his employees, and any equipment or material he purchased with regard to fetal tissue research.

A spokesman for the House panel said the goal of the investigation is to “protect the integrity of research, scientific advancements, and voluntary organ donation in America.”

“As you know, at the core of our investigation is a federal statute that prohibits the sale of fetal tissue for a profit,” he said. “Evidence uncovered by our Panel reveals that the unethical and potentially unlawful practices of some bad actors, like StemExpress, may be putting important scientific research at risk. Since Ganogen was listed on documents produced to our Panel as a customer who purchased fetal tissue from StemExpress, we subpoenaed the company for information that is pertinent to our effort to get all the facts.”
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But Gu said the negative attention from Congress has created a “harrowing” ordeal for him. Fellow surgical residents at Vanderbilt became suspicious of him. He said one colleague compared him to Martin Shkreli, the deeply hated pharmaceutical executive who had to testify before Congress after he acquired the manufacturing license for a life-saving anti-parasitic drug and raised its price by 5,556 percent. Gu’s academic evaluations turned negative, after years of near-perfect grades, and he says the doctors he was observing in surgery became more demanding and critical of him.

Outside of school, anti-abortion activists began to harass him on social media and send him angry notes.

“How’s your beating baby heart business going @Ganogen_Inc @eugenegu?” tweeted David Daleiden, the activist behind the Planned Parenthood videos.

“I felt under siege,” Gu said. “I’m just trying to save people’s lives, and now I’m being thrown into this abortion fight as a proxy. I have nothing to do with abortion, I don’t encourage abortion ― I just use tissue that would otherwise be discarded. And now I’m painted as this ‘baby killer’ just for doing research as a medical student.”
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M

metalslimer

Member
The negative stigma conservatives painted on embroynic stem cell research has probably set many fields back by at least a decade. The current republican party is worthless. Even getting out of medical research, the target they have put on climatologists back has been evil as well.
 
N

Not

Banned
How can so many people be so stupid?

How can the centuries-old campaign by rich people to align themselves with evangelical interests have been so successful?
 
D

devilhawk

Member
As a scientist myself and someone intimately connected to teaching hospitals this part sounds a little bogus, especially if his work is as clearcut as the article made it out to be. I have a feeling there is some information we are missing about his spin-off company. I'll have to look in to what he has published, it certainly is interesting and something I have no doubt the anti-science groups, likely unjustly, want to end.

But Gu said the negative attention from Congress has created a “harrowing” ordeal for him. Fellow surgical residents at Vanderbilt became suspicious of him. He said one colleague compared him to Martin Shkreli, the deeply hated pharmaceutical executive who had to testify before Congress after he acquired the manufacturing license for a life-saving anti-parasitic drug and raised its price by 5,556 percent. Gu’s academic evaluations turned negative, after years of near-perfect grades, and he says the doctors he was observing in surgery became more demanding and critical of him.
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Here is a recent short letter he penned in the Sep Nature. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v535/n7610/full/535037c.html
Fetal tissue: US panel risks infant and researcher lives - Eugene Gu & Cate Dyer

As the chief executives of the biotech companies Ganogen and StemExpress, we are among a broad sweep subpoenaed — along with scientists, graduate students and physicians also engaged in research involving fetal tissue — by the US House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. In our view, this witch-hunt endangers infants and researchers and must end.

The panel's stated aim is to “get the facts about medical practices of abortion service providers and the business practices of the procurement organizations who sell baby body parts”. On 1 June, it released the names, addresses, e-mail contacts and telephone numbers of many of us in an open letter to the US Department of Health and Human Services. We consider this to be a callous disregard of the threat posed by activists to medical researchers who are in fact engaged in saving young lives (see Nature Biotechnol. 34, 445; 2016).

Research involving fetal tissue led to vaccines against polio, rubella and chickenpox. It was central to proving the link between Zika virus and infant microcephaly (H. Tang et al. Cell Stem Cell 16, 587–590; 2016), and is essential for developing a vaccine against the virus (Nature 532, 16; 2016). The chair of the panel, Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, should note that her constituents, and those of committee members Diane Black (Tennessee) and Vicki Hartzler (Missouri), are especially vulnerable to Zika because the mosquito vector, Aedes aegypti, is more prevalent in the southern states.
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N

Not

Banned
devilhawk said:
As a scientist myself and someone intimately connected to teaching hospitals this part sounds a little bogus, especially if his work is as clearcut as the article made it out to be. I have a feeling there is some information we are missing about his spin-off company. I'll have to look in to what he has published, it certainly is interesting and something I have no doubt the anti-science groups, likely unjustly, want to end.
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Naw. I'm pretty sure idiots just hear "fetus" and "science" in a sentence and start pointing their AKs at abortion clinics
 
G

God Dayumm

Banned
Joke's on them. Republicans are more likely to die from heart disease and renal failure due to their morbid obesity. May the beetus take them with to treatment on sight
 
V

Vyrance

Member
No surprise that the GOP would waste time with shit like this. It's terrible that him and other doctors are having to suffer because of the GOP
 
D

devilhawk

Member
Not said:
Naw. I'm pretty sure idiots just hear "fetus" and "science" in a sentence and start pointing their AKs at abortion clinics
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I'm referring to his peers in science and medicine that he complained about. I understand the randos on the street and in the legislature that know nothing.
 
O

orthodoxy1095

Banned
Okay, the harassment by pro-life activists and average Joes doesn't surprise me. But his doctoral peers turned on him? That doesn't make sense to me.
 
A

Aaron

Member
So do you have to be a sociopath to be a member of the GOP, or is being dangerously self-obsessed and ignorant seen as a really big perk?
 
S

SolarPowered

Member
Debirudog said:
The GOP is nothing but an hindrance for the betterment of society.
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Unknown One said:
I'll go as far as to say they are a danger to society.
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Nope

They've become a legitimate danger to the world at this point when men like Trump and Putin are having so much influence on the republican party now. The most powerful country in the world absolutely cannot be run or influenced by the RNC's anti-intellectual rhetoric and climate change denying ass.
 
N

Nafai1123

Banned
Fuck the GOP and citizens who support them. I'm so sick of them ruining our country willingly while voters let them do it.
 
M

M-PG71C

Member
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, I can't stand her. She reeks of ignorance. This is a true shame and speaking as a healthcare professional, I am very empathetic with what he is going through. That sucks so bad.
 
S

Snowybreak

Member
Fuck the Republican party and these ass-backwards conservatives in general. They have done nothing but impede progress in every part of society. Everything from blocking medical advancement to causing lies to proliferate the modern discourse.

I have no more sympathy for anyone who aligns themselves with that party.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
SenorArdilla said:
Shouldn't Pro-Lifers be all for this? He's literally saving fetuses with birth defects.
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Pro life activists have never been pro life, just anti abortion. They don't give a fuck about the health of the fetus, or preventing miscarrages, or the kid once he leaves the womb, only about reversing and hampering Roe v. Wade.
 
J

jtb

Banned
God Dayumm said:
Joke's on them. Republicans are more likely to die from heart disease and renal failure due to their morbid obesity. May the beetus take them with to treatment on sight
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actually, joke's still on us because their refusal to fix our broken healthcare system means we're footing their medical bills
 
A

Azzanadra

Member
Its incredibly ironic how the US despite being the country most advanced in science in the world simultaneously has such a dogmatic adherence to religion and puritanical nonsense.
 
H

Huff

Banned
God Dayumm said:
Joke's on them. Republicans are more likely to die from heart disease and renal failure due to their morbid obesity. May the beetus take them with to treatment on sight
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Well this is kinda ironic considering the standard forum user
 
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