In an editorial published July 17, New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Editor Jeffrey M. Drazen pledged to give stem cell research a prominent place in the journal's pages. Although the science of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is still "in its infancy," he wrote, "…we know that this approach to treatment is now possible." Calling federal limitations on stem cell research "shortsighted," Drazen promised that NEJM would go on a quest for "highly meritorious manuscripts that describe research using embryonic stem cells."

An accompanying review article on the "Promethean" promise of this research comes replete with citations from Nature, Science, and Nature Medicine but with few medical journal references.

"We want to encourage people to think of us as stem cell research goes from what has been predominantly basic science to the clinical side," Drazen told The Scientist. "It's on the cusp at this point. We publish a lot of papers which are at the interface between basic discovery and clinical science. If something teaches us about the biology of a disease, for example, even though it may not be immediately relevant to treating that disease, it's of interest to our readers."

"I think any of us at the leading medical journals would be happy and delighted to get a good article showing the clinical importance of stem cell research," said Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Both JAMA and NEJM have recently initiated "bench to bedside" columns aimed at the translational process, she observed. "You make a statement and you say you're interested; that doesn't mean that Dr. Drazen or any of us would publish articles that weren't peer-reviewed and good studies."

Of course, NEJM's move is political, and appropriately so, DeAngelis said. "I have to believe that he truly thinks that this is a political way to drive the importance of stem cell research. All of us use our pages, wisely I would hope, to make statements about things we think are very important affecting people's health care." She pointed to JAMA's out-on-a-limb position last spring calling for the banning of ephedra as an example. JAMA's parent organization, the American Medical Association, recently endorsed SCNT research.

Drazen predicts that many of the articles that may be submitted to NEJM as a result of his stem cell summons will come from foreign institutions, and he hopes that prominent reporting of other countries' taking the lead in such an important field of research will generate more pressure for lifting of stem cell restrictions.

"We wanted to go on record on this. At this point, stem cell research technology is likely to be developed outside the US, and we're going to be missing out on that technical know-how," Drazen said. "The best and the brightest will be going out of the country to do this sort of work. We would hope that people will understand that you can't legislate away scientific progress."