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Stem cell experts say state funding not enough

Posted on: Friday, 4 August 2006, 16:38 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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