Neuroscience's Superstar

Over the past seven years, the annual conference of MIT's and Harvard University's Hippocratic societies has hosted an impressive array of internationally renowned luminaries and laureates, who have spoken on diverse medical topics from alternative medicine to genetic technologies. But the groups' March conference on neuroscience drew a speaker with star power-actor Christopher Reeve.

As part of a panel considering the ethics and policies of neuroscience, Reeve spoke to an auditorium packed with Harvard and MIT students. He devoted his talk to the politics behind embryonic-stem-cell research. Since he became paralyzed in an equestrian accident in 1995, Reeve has had a personal interest in the promise of stem cell therapy.

Reeve believes that President Bush's 2001 decision to limit the number of embryonic-stem-cell lines-sets of similar cells derived from a common parent cell-was driven by politics, not by the advice of scientists. Asserting that this decision has greatly delayed the potential benefits of the research, Reeve encouraged students to speak with state representatives about the issue. "You guys are in a position to be heard," he told the gathering.

The Hippocratic societies' annual conference aims to bring together professionals and students who are interested in the health-care industry to discuss issues of scientific, political, legal, and ethical concern. Speakers at this year's conference addressed many aspects of neuroscience, such as the ethics of research and clinical trials and the role of journals in the communication of scientific findings.