Obama to lift Stem Cell Research restriction

[NotGreyheim]

President Barack Obama will sign an executive order on Monday that ends the federal government’s 2001 restrictions on federal funding for some embryonic stem cell lines, a move hailed by Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle as a "great step forward."

Stem cell research, pioneered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by biologist James Thomson, is viewed by many to be the gateway to finding cures to debilitating neurological and muscular diseases. Such research also is believed to hold commercial opportunities that could result in economic development, but the federal restrictions have been blamed for slowing U.S. research while work overseas continued to advance.

"The decision will help restore America as a leader in this field and is a clear path out of a policy thicket that has slowed the pace of discovery for eight years," Thomson said in a statement released Monday. "It also removes a stigma that has discouraged many bright young people from embarking on careers in stem cell research."

In November 2004, Doyle announced a $750 million plan involving state and private investment to fund stem cell research in addition to research in the health sciences.

“Wisconsin is the home of embryonic stem cell research, and I have always fought to keep politics away from science, so that researchers have the freedom they need to make life-saving advances," Doyle said in a statement. "We are at the ground floor of a field of discovery that represents tremendous promise to improve and save lives."

It was unclear whether Obama would make a blanket rescission of the limits Bush put in place in August 2001, if restrictions would be gradually lifted or if some limitations would remain. The New York Times reported Sunday that Obama would leave the question of whether to use taxpayers' dollars for research experiments on the embryos themselves up to Congress.

Bush in August 2001 limited federal funding to 21 already-existing cell lines. That move gained the support of many evangelicals, who believe that life begins at conception and thus opposed human embryonic stem cell research on moral grounds because embryos were destroyed during the process.

That has led stem cell research institutions to buy new equipment and in many cases seal off their embryonic stem cell research from other non-embryonic research funded by the federal government.

In 2007, a team of UW-Madison scientists led by Thomson announced that they were able to genetically reprogram human skin cells to create cells indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, a landmark accomplishment that could sidestep the controversy surrounding human embryonic stem cell research.

Nonetheless, Wisconsin Stem Cell Now, a nonprofit organization that promotes stem cell research, said that without the possibility of federal funding for this research, developments in the field have been slowed and some researchers have been deterred from entering the field.

“While stem cell lines can now be derived from multiple sources, including adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, President Obama’s Executive Order will open up federal funding for what is still considered to be “the gold standard” of stem cell research by leading scientists," said Ed Fallone, president of Wisconsin Stem Cell Now. "No longer will the federal government impose ideological litmus tests that handicap promising areas of research into the origins and cures of diseases such as Parkinson’s, diabetes and Alzheimer’s."

Obama to lift embryonic stem cell restrictions Monday - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

This is major news! I didn't see anything posted on it, delete if there was.

[Lampoon]

God Bless Him!

[izembo]

good, something based on science, not religious beliefs

[Dimmauk]

Obama to lift embryonic stem cell restrictions Monday - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

This is major news! I didn't see anything posted on it, delete if there was.

http://english.pravda.ru/img/idb/05-michael_j_fox.jpg

[Tristam]

bout' freaking time, and just in time for the NIH stimulus boost!

[Enkidu]

Should have taken that 750 million and spent it on the UW-systems medicinal chemistry departments and not this stem cell horseshit.

[Akucaen]

About time this was lifted. Now we can get some real, life-saving/changing research done.

[Araelus]

Should have taken that 750 million and spent it on the UW-systems medicinal chemistry departments and not this stem cell horseshit.

Especially because all the major breakthroughs seem to be with non-embryonic stem cells. Oh well.

to avoid double-posting:
The thought follows, as Tristam said, that only the funded research gets the discoveries, but the Federal restrictions weren't all that restrictive based on who you talk to. Private interest groups have poured funding into non-controversial forms of SC research rather than ESCR, despite there being no private sector limits on ESCR. Recent breakthroughs had convinced me that ethically contested research methods would not be back on the table. It seems the debate was never settled in the political sector.

I generally approve of letting the scientists decide what research is worthwhile and what is not. In this case it is the President's prerogative to make Federal decisions on how best to help the researchers do that. So, let's see what happens! If progress is made using embryonic cells, then it provides more data points towards a conclusion.

[Tristam]

Especially because all the major breakthroughs seem to be with non-embryonic stem cells. Oh well.

Well when you can't work with ES cells.....

[Aerin]

So happy to see this. And ya during Bush's reign the government didn't fund ES cell research, which you know... limits the research done with ES cells >.>

[melbufrauma]

bout time, GG

[thatwasnifty]

Well when you can't work with ES cells.....

Not to mention that everything learned from adult stem cells and IPSCs couldn't have been learned without first experimenting on ESCs.

[melbufrauma]

ill just leave this here
Stem Cells Replace Stroke-damaged Tissue In Rats

[Senoska]

http://english.pravda.ru/img/idb/05-michael_j_fox.jpg

I bet he is just shaking with excitement

[Tristam]

ill just leave this here
Stem Cells Replace Stroke-damaged Tissue In Rats

My girlfriend was involved at a technical level in a similar study operated by a private company here in the US. This stuff is no joke, I shudder to think that we'd be beaten to the technology by foreign companies hiring PhD's trained in the US. Here's hoping we can catch up.

[Xno Kappa]

The Republicans qq'ing over this shit make me sick. They all act like they're closet scientists that understand every aspect of this research.

[Jabberwocky]

I bet he is just shaking with excitement

Thread over.

[Amastacia]

Wait, the President letting Congress (and thus theoretically the People) decide what it wants to do and/or support?

Amaaaaaaazing.

[0ni0n]

I am outraged. Why did Obama lift the ban? Can't he think of the children (in cell form)? I thought we aren't leaving any children behind, this is utter hypocrisy on the part of the federal government. Think of all the kids who won't enjoy the breathtaking beauty of US landscape, won't breath the sweet sweet air of freedom, won't be entitled to all the socialist benefits that obama's bestowing upon our citizens. I demand him reverse what he did so that children who would have been born will be born, live a fulfilling life, and finally unite with Jesus Christ, our father who art in heaven.

[pohibaba]

Wait, the President letting Congress (and thus theoretically the People) decide what it wants to do and/or support?

Amaaaaaaazing.

On one small issue, yes.