In an episode of The Colbert Report that aired October 1, 2009, Stephen Colbert interviewed Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health.
During that interview, the two briefly discussed the future of stem cell research after Colbert asked how long it will take for stem cells to grow new body parts, because he’d like to put in for a “pair of crab claws.”
Thanks to Tivo and the Internet, here is a partial transcript of that interview where the two talk about stem cell research…and crab claws
(P.S. A video showing the entire interview can be found at the bottom of this post):
Colbert: Stem cells is one of the forefronts of medicine.
Collins: Absolutely.
Colbert: How close are we to being able to use stem cells to grow new body parts? Because I’d like to put in for a pair of crab claws. Can’t we do that? Because for years now doctor I’ve been hearing about stem cells this, stem cells that, we gotta have stem cells, we gotta fund stem cells cuz they are the be all do all. Is that just like, you know, “virtual reality” – it’ll never actually happen?
Collins: No, no, no. Stem cells are a very exciting frontier but realize medicine and its research takes time to go from that initial observation to something…
Colbert: Why does it take so much time?
Collins: Well, for instance, these cells that you can derive from your own skin that can basically become any part of your body that you happen to need, you probably want to be sure they’re going to work so your crab claws don’t become a complete exoskeleton.
Colbert: Kind of cool though, it would be kind of cool.
Collins: It might be for a little while.
Colbert: I’d have a kitenous(?) armor shell.
Collins: Yeah it would be hard to hug people, they wouldn’t really want to get too close to you, so we gotta do the research steps in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t work. There is, though, right now, a clinical trial underway for human embryonic stem cells to treat spinal cord injury and we’re all very excited to see how that turns out, this is really starting to happen.
[Applause]