Stem cell experts say state funding not enough

By Joanne Morrison

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top embryonic stem cell scientists
warned on Friday that state and private funding, following
President George W. Bush’s veto of a bill to expand federal
funding and research, was not enough to keep the United States
at the forefront of research in the field.

Their comments came as scientists faced their fifth year
working under policy set by Bush that limits federally funded
research to 78 existing embryonic stem-cell lines, most of
which are inadequate for research.

“Unfortunately, national policy has prevented the
unfettered study in this area,” said John Gearhart of Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, speaking on a panel hosted by
the Center for American Progress, the political think tank
headed by John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President
Bill Clinton.

“If this work had been funded robustly, we would be much
further along in our goals,” Gearhart said, predicting advances
could more likely take place in other countries where there are
fewer restrictions.

The human body has 220 types of cells. Eight years ago,
scientists in Wisconsin were the first to isolate and cultivate
in a lab the one special type of cell from embryonic tissue
that is capable of forming all other types of cells.

While scientists hope those cells one day can be used to
cure a wide range of diseases by essentially directing the
human body to repair itself, research has been caught up in a
political cross-fire.

TOUGH OPPOSITION

Embryonic stem cell research is opposed by religious groups
and some conservative politicians because the research destroys
human embryos.

Only a small fraction of funding at the federal
government’s National Institutes of Health has been earmarked
for human embryonic stem cell research, just $38 million of
NIH’s $28.6 billion budget in fiscal 2006.

Just last month, Bush cast his first veto on a bipartisan
bill to expand embryonic research. “It crosses a moral boundary
that our decent society needs to respect,” he said.

A handful of states, including California and Wisconsin,
have enacted their own funding measures for research. That has
been applauded by researchers, but they caution it is still not
enough.

“It’s very difficult to think back on any major scientific
breakthrough that has been funded by state money only,” said
David Scadden professor of medicine at Harvard University and
co-director of Harvard’s Stem Cell Institute.