"What is crueler, to not have hope or to have hope? And it's not false hope. It's a very informed hope." -Michael J. Fox

News and Commentary

Stem cell tourist traps
For many years, people have been traveling thousands of miles and paying thousands of dollars to receive unregulated treatments that promise cures.  The most recent manifestation of this is "stem cell tourism."
A recent article in Nature Reports Stem Cells by Bryn Nelson discusses international efforts to inform patients of the facts about clinics that offer undocumented stem cell therapies.  The International Society for Stem Cell Research is asking for public comment on a set of guidelines that will provides governments with guidance about regulating stem cell therapies within their borders.

Snake Oil Stem Cell "Therapeutics"      Chances are that a few of our Google ads (to the left) are advertising stem cell treatments. Remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't.  Here's an archive of cautionary commentaries.

Remember why: Videos:  Proposition 71, CIRM spotlights on disease, and more. 
News and Commentary Archive

May 8, 2009

A History Lesson for Stem Cells
By: James M. Wilson
When President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order on 9 March 2009 rolling back the previous administration's restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, he took pains to temper Americans' hopes for quick fixes. "At this moment, the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown and it should not be overstated," the president said. "I cannot guarantee that we will find the treatments and cures we seek". Unfortunately, some stakeholders in hESC research have failed to exhibit the same restraint, effectively promising cures for Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, macular degeneration, and hearing loss, to name a few...Read More

May 7, 2009
News in Brief: South Korea re-enters human stem-cell research

On 29 April, South Korea's national bioethics committee conditionally approved a study using human eggs for stem-cell studies — the first such licence granted since a scandal unfolded over similar work by Korean researcher Woo Suk Hwang. A team at Cha General Hospital in Seoul will be permitted to create cloned human embryos using the eggs. The study's go ahead is dependent on four conditions: donors must give informed consent; research with human eggs should be minimized; an internal review board must oversee the experiments; and the study cannot be hyped by mention of possible clinical benefit. The research aims to establish stem-cell lines from the cloned embryos, for research and potentially for therapy. Hwang published claims to have done that in 2005, but in January 2006 his research was found to be fraudulent and his acquisition of human eggs unethical. He remains on trial for fraud, embezzlement and violation of the nation's bioethics law…Read More

May 6, 2009

The pendulum swung. President Barack Obama removes restrictions on stem-cell research, but are expectations now too high?
Howard Wolinsky
Since his inauguration on 20 January 2009, US President Barack Obama has been busy reversing and dismantling many of his predecessor's decisions and policies. Seven weeks into his presidency, he finally lifted the controversial restraints on embryonic-stem-cell research that had barred the National Institutes of Health (NIH; Bethesda, MD, USA) from funding projects beyond using the 60 extant cell lines—only 21 of which were viable. From the moment former President George W. Bush introduced this legislation in August 2001, embryonic-stem-cell researchers had to find other sources of funding to develop new lines...Read More

May 5, 2009

Reprogramming to pluripotency without genetic engineering: Researchers make iPS cells without inserting DNA
By: Monya Baker
For the first time, researchers have reprogrammed cells to pluripotency without using DNA. Ever since Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan showed that cultured skin cells could be made to behave like embryonic stem cells by inserting additional pluripotency genes, researchers have been trying to find ways to avoid genetic engineering as a reprogramming strategy. The additional genes make the cells less predictable, more variable and more prone to undergo unwanted proliferation. Even if DNA is not inserted into the cells, researchers worry that undetected integration could occur and could change the behaviour of those cells, limiting their use in cell therapy, drug screening and disease modeling...Read More

May 4, 2009

Obama's stem cell move
By: Heather B. Wood
Researchers have welcomed the decision by Barack Obama to allow US federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. "The removal of a barrier that has stood in our way for 8 years will open important new areas of research, and move the field forward more rapidly," says Douglas Melton, co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (Guardian, 9 March 2009). Melton plans to collaborate with publicly funded scientists to develop treatments for conditions such as Parkinson disease and Alzheimer disease...Read More

May 1, 2009
iPS cell technology gains momentum in drug discovery
By: Sarah Webb
The successful reprogramming of adult cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells without viral vectors adds to the excitement about the application of iPS cells in drug discovery and development. In March 2009, researchers reported success in addressing one of the key challenges in the application of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells: reprogramming from adult specialized cells can now be achieved without the use of viral vectors to deliver the transcription factors required. These methods avoid the potential problem of viral vectors integrating into cells and causing unpredictable genetic dysfunction...Read More

April 30, 2009
Stem-cell treatments for spinal-cord injury may be worth the risk
By: Jesse Owens
In his Correspondence 'Caution urged in trial of stem cells to treat spinal-cord injury' (Nature 458, 29; 2009), Yves Barde questions the wisdom of testing oligodendrocyte precursors derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells in patients, despite the promise that such cells hold for repairing these injuries in rodents...Read More

April 29, 2009
Japan cuts red tape holding up stem-cell work
A Japanese science ministry committee announced a plan on April 22 to loosen regulations on research involving embryonic stem cells (ES cells). Scientists have complained about the current excessively bureaucratic system whereby they must seek permission for such work from a ministerial commission. The commission meets only rarely, and sometimes requests extra data from animal experiments to justify human research...Read More

April 25, 2009

Draft Stem Cell Guidelines Please Many, Disappoint Some
By: Constance Holden and Jocelyn Kaiser
They are not perfect, but they're a big improvement over what scientists have been living with since 2001. That's how most feel about the draft guidelines on human stem cell research released last week by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The proposed rules, to be finalized this summer, will expand the number of human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines available to researchers by eliminating the cutoff date for cell lines that qualify for federal funding. Acting NIH Director Raynard Kington predicted that "in a matter of months, we are likely to increase greatly the number of human embryonic stem cell lines eligible for federal funding." He said that NIH estimates up to 700 lines exist based on literature reviews and registries...Read More

April 24, 2009
Fake Facebook pages spin web of deceit: Stem-cell scientists are caught up in fictional friend network — but no-one knows why.
By: Lucas Laursen
In September 2008, Forbes science editor Matthew Herper and former Washington Post reporter Rick Weiss appeared together on a panel at the World Stem Cell Summit in Madison, Wisconsin. In late February, Herper received an invitation to 'friend' Weiss on the Internet social-networking site Facebook. On the basis of their acquaintance, Herper accepted, noticing that a number of other people involved with stem cells were listed as friends on Weiss's profile. However, that profile — and many of those it was linked to — was a fake...Read More

April 23, 2009

Still strict on stem cells
By: Meredith Wadman
Even some Bush-approved cell lines could be denied federal funding. US stem-cell researchers are applauding draft guidelines released by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) last week to govern federally funded research on human embryonic stem-cell lines. Some, however, say the provisional rules are still too restrictive because they would exclude lines derived from embryos created for research purposes...Read More

News in Brief: US and Japan to collaborate on stem-cell technology
Rumours of a potential conflict over the exploitation of patents for induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technology were put to rest last week. IPS technology was pioneered in 2006 by Shinya Yamanaka of Japan's Kyoto University. By early 2008, Kazuhiro Sakurada, who had also been working on iPS technologies at the Kobe-based drug company Bayer Yakuhin, left Japan to head research at iZumi Bio — a biotech firm focused on commercializing iPS technology in San Francisco, California. Last spring, Japanese newspapers warned that Sakurada might try to claim patent rights to the technology, which can turn ordinary cells into an embryonic-like state that could be useful for research and therapy (see Nature 453, 962–963; 2008)...Read More

April 22, 2009

Stem cells: Fast and furious
By: Monya Baker
The field of induced pluripotent stem cells has gone from standing start to headlong rush in less than three years. Back in spring 2007, Shinya Yamanaka thought he had a safe head start in a scientific race. Less than six months earlier he had demonstrated a technique that turned run-of-the-mill body cells into ones much like mouse embryonic stem cells1. Yamanaka's results were met with awe and scepticism. Few believed that a cell's identity was so flexible that the insertion of just four embryonic genes could reprogram it into a cell that could make virtually every body tissue...Read More

April 17, 2009

NIH announces draft stem-cell guidelines: US agency outlines framework for funding human embryonic stem-cell work.
By: Meredith Wadman
The National Institutes of Health today released a comprehensive set of draft guidelines intended to govern federally funded human embryonic stem cell research. The provisional rules were published 38 days after President Barack Obama signed an executive order freeing up federal money for research on hundreds of human embryonic stem cell lines...Read More

April 15, 2009
News in Brief: Genome Canada cancels stem-cell project funding
Genome Canada, a not-for-profit organization, has pulled its support for an international stem-cell consortium. The International Regulome Consortium, which involves 12 countries and aims to understand the regulatory networks that guide cell behaviour, expected Genome Canada to provide Can$20 million (US$16 million) over 5 years towards the Can$80-million project. Genome Canada's head Martin Godbout says that the organization decided not to continue its support after an interim review of the project's science, management and budget recommended substantial changes…Read More

April 8, 2009
Stem cells: Low-risk reprogramming
By: Martin F. Pera
New techniques circumvent a roadblock to the production of embryonicstem-cell-like lines from adult tissue. Such reprogrammed cell lines should be much safer to use for therapy...Read More

April 7, 2009

Multiple sclerosis: Stem cell transplants ameliorate neurological deficits in multiple sclerosis
By: Heather B. Wood
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been under investigation as a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) for over a decade, and several studies have indicated that this treatment can stabilize neurological disability in patients with this condition. Until now, however, little evidence has suggested that this treatment can reverse the disease process. In The Lancet Neurology, Richard Burt and colleagues at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA, report that autologous, non-myeloablative, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can improve neurological deficits if performed during the relapsing–remitting phase of MS...Read More

April 5, 2009
A stem cell ban is lifted, but some states see a heavy backlash
By: Kirsten Dorans
To the cheers of biomedical researchers around the country, US President Barack Obama lifted limitations on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research on 9 March. Within the next few months, the US National Institutes of Health will release guidelines outlining when and how human stem cell research should be federally funded. As a result of this move, US researchers will be able to apply for federal funding to do research on an increased number of human embryonic stem cell lines. However, as the federal government moves to promote embryonic stem cell research, some states are considering new rules that could hinder such work...Read More

April 4, 2009
Overcoming Opposition, Brazil Banks on Stem Cells
By: Marcelo Leite
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL--Despite vocal opposition from religious groups, the Brazilian government has launched a major initiative in pluripotent stem cell research. In the past 3 weeks, eight university labs in four states started receiving the first payments of a 3-year, $9.3 million grant intended to reshape them into Cell Technology Centers...Read More

April 2, 2009
Meet the inlaws: Embryonic stem cell derivatives meet the immune system
By: William B Tabayoyong and Nicholas Zavazava
Since the derivation of embryonic stem (ES) cell lines from human blastocysts in 1998, ES cells have emerged as a potential source of cells and tissues that could be used for cell replacement therapy of incurable degenerative diseases. This is due to their remarkable pluripotency, which enables them to differentiate into any adult cell type of the three embryonal germ layers. Indeed, several groups have reported the successful differentiation of ES cells into adult-type cell lineages including, but not limited to: cardiomyocytes, hematopoietic cells, hepatocytes, and neurons...Read More

April 1, 2009

Talking Points on morality and human embryo research
Morality and human embryo research
By: Thomas Baldwin
The readers of EMBO reports will be familiar with the broad outlines of the debate about whether it is morally acceptable to destroy human embryos for the purposes of medical research. The Talking Point articles published here exemplify the two sides of this debate: Robert George and Patrick Lee argue that such research is inherently wrong, whereas Thomas Douglas and Julian Savulescu contend that there are no sound moral objections to it...Read More

Embryonic human persons: Talking Point on morality and human embryo research
By: Robert P. George & Patrick Lee
If, as we believe, human embryos are human beings who deserve the same basic respect we accord to human beings at later developmental stages, then research that involves deliberately dismembering embryonic humans in order to use their cells for the benefit of others is inherently wrong...Read More

Destroying unwanted embryos in research

By: Thomas Douglas & Julian Savulescu
Some of the human embryos generated by in vitro fertilization (IVF) are treasured by the couples whose gametes were fused to create them; they may fulfill the wish of the prospective parents to have a child. We call these ‘wanted embryos’. It would be wrong to destroy such embryos in research; however, not all embryos are wanted. We argue that it is, with the consent of the parents, morally permissible to conduct destructive research on embryos that are not wanted—perhaps because the reproductive wish of the parents has been fulfilled or abandoned...Read More

March 30, 2009

Embryonic Education
Editorial
Now that the US federal funding ban on human embryonic stem cells is lifted, scientists must engage the public's concerns about embryo research. When US President Barack Obama lifted the funding ban for research on human embryonic stem cells earlier this month, he did not mention the Dickey-Wicker amendment legislation that forbids the use of federal funds for research that destroys or creates embryos. It was a missed opportunity to begin a necessary conversation...Read More

March 29, 2009
Stem cell shifts: Skin cells are claimed as a new source of stem cells.
By: Nigel Williams
President Barack Obama announced this month, as he had promised on his campaign trail, a lifting of the ban on federal funding for research on new human embryonic stem cells. The former president, George Bush, blocked the use of government money to fund research into any human embryonic stem cells created after 9 August 2001. The decision forms part of Obama’s pledge to make his administration’s support for science to be freer from political interference. His decision is set to increase international competition to create potentially clinically useful and economically viable sources of human stem cells...Read More

March 25, 2009

Monitoring and Regulating Offshore Stem Cell Clinics
By: Sorapop Kiatpongsan and Douglas Sipp
Traveling to another country in the hope of finding a stem cell-based treatment for a disease--"stem cell tourism"--has been the object of intense scrutiny in recent years, following reports of charlatanry, baseless claims, and adverse medical events. Providers of stem cell-based interventions vary widely in their assertions about the conditions that can be treated, the degree of improvement, and the cell types and protocols used, but there are many advertisements for medical procedures that have never been proven efficacious in appropriately designed clinical trials...Read More

March 24, 2009

Australia:
 Stem Cell Center Looks to Recast Itself in Supporting Role
By: Elizabeth Finkel
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA--The Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC), a controversial experiment in speeding the commercialization of stem cell research, is slated for a radical overhaul. For the next 2 years, the center plans to turn away from its much-criticized commercial focus and recharge its research effort. Then in 2011, ASCC is likely to be transformed into an outfit that provides technical and licensing support for stem cell research...Read More

March  23, 2009

Obama Executive Order: 
For Congress and NIH, Headaches Ahead on Stem Cells
By: Constance Holden
With his long-awaited 9 March executive order lifting restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research, President Barack Obama has opened the door to some political fighting as nasty as any that has been seen so far on the subject of research with human embryonic stem (hES) cells...Read More

March 21, 2009
Prospects: Stem cell recruits
By: Gene Russo
When President Barack Obama lifted the ban on US federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research on 9 March, he did more than make a symbolic gesture in favour of advancing science; and he did more than take a step towards long-touted (if not guaranteed) disease cures...Read More

March 17, 2009

China's policies on stem cell research: an opportunity for international collaborations
By: Xi Jin, Lin Zheng, Ruo-heng Zheng & You-ming Li
The Science & Society articles by Richard O. Hynes (US policies on human embryonic stem cells. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 9, 993–997 (2008) and Robin Lovell-Badge (The regulation of human embryo and stem-cell research in the United Kingdom. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 9, 998–1003 (2008) discuss the policies on human embryonic stem (ES) cell research in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively...Read More

March 13, 2009
Stem cell clinical trials must be closely monitored
By: Clive Svendsen
Results of unregulated stem cell transplant were predictable and avoidable: This commentary provides an expert perspective to an article published in PLoS Medicine, which has been reported in Nature and Nature Reports Stem Cells...Read More

Human embryonic stem cells hit a nerve
Monya Baker
Embryonic stem cells differentiate readily toward neural cells in culture, but most techniques to push them down this path still rely on undefined or random factors. Either human embryonic stem cells are exposed to the hotchpotch of secretions from neural-inducing cell cultures or they are allowed to differentiate into embryoid bodies, from which the desired cells must be extracted over multiple steps. Now, research led by Lorenz Studer and Stuart Chambers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York has shown that neural lineages can be induced from human embryonic stem cells with over 80% efficiency using fully defined conditions and without relying on inducing cells or embryoid bodies...Read More

March 12, 2009
Unregulated stem cell transplant causes tumours
By: Monya Baker
Foetal stem cells transplanted to a boy with a hereditary neurodegenerative disease have grown into noncancerous tumours in his brain and spinal cord. Though the poorly documented procedure did not occur as part of a clinical trial, it marks the first reported case of a brain tumour resulting from stem cell transplantation and highlights potential risks of cell-based therapies...Read More

Companies say clinical trials, product launches, coming up, seek investors

By: Monya Baker
Enthusiasm was more apparent than scepticism at the 4th Annual Stem Cell Summit, organized by investor, analyst and stem cell fan Robin Young, head of RRY Publications. This conference brought together a motley collection of companies, both well-known and obscure, and each was given ten minutes to tout themselves to potential investors and partners...Read More

March 11, 2009
Geron gets green light for human trial of ES cell–derived product
By: Joe Alper
After an eight-month delay, on 23 January, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first human trials of embryonic stem (hES) cells, a surprise decision that came on the eve of President Barack Obama’s expected policy change concerning hES cell research...Read More

March 10, 2009

Obama reins in signing statements
The Boston Globe
Rebuking his predecessor for the second time yesterday, President Obama declared that he will not use signing statements to disregard parts of laws because he disagrees on policy grounds, but only when he strongly believes provisions are unconstitutional. In a presidential memo, Obama also ordered his top executive branch officials to seek advice from Attorney General Eric Holder about whether to enforce the hundreds of statements proffered by President George W. Bush...Read More

Obama overturns stem-cell ban
By: Erika Check Hayden (Nature)
President's executive order will allow US human embryonic stem-cell research to thrive at last. Scientists and research advocates worldwide are celebrating the removal of rules limiting research on human embryonic stem cells in the United States, which they say have restricted the field's progress for seven and a half years...Read More

Obama ends stem cell funding ban
BBC NEWS
US President Barack Obama has lifted restrictions on federal funding for research on new stem cell lines. Mr Obama signed an executive order in a major reversal of US policy, pledging to "vigorously support" new research. Ex-President George W Bush blocked the use of any government money to fund research on human embryonic stem cell lines created after August 9, 2001...Read More

Obama Lifts Embryonic Stem Cell Research Ban, Spurring Blogger Debate Bloggers take on Obama's move on stem cells.
By Andrew Burt
Today, President Obama signed an executive order overturning the federal funding ban placed on embryonic stem cell research in 2001. Obama's speech is available here. Needless to say, it didn't take long for bloggers to take sides. Here's how bloggers handled the news...Read More

Yesterday At The White House

By: Don C. Reed
Dear Stem Cell Research Advocate:
Yesterday, being in the room when President Obama signed an executive order reversing ideological restrictions on embryonic stem cell research was an honor and a delight. But for my paralyzed son Roman Reed and all the other patient advocates in the room, it meant so much more than that: the White House is now squarely on the side of cure...Read More

March 9, 2009

US President affirms support for research, signs Executive Order reversing limitations on human embryonic stem cell research
Commentary by Jeanne Loring
President Obama today lifted an eight-year-old restriction on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, signing an executive order that he called "an important step in advancing the cause of science in America."
"We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research," Obama said, "and we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield." 
"In recent years, when it comes to stem cell research, rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values," Obama said during the signing ceremony.  "In this case, I believe the two are not inconsistent. As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research – and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly."

The following Executive Order is eloquent on the subject.  It was published in the Federal Register today- it reverses both the "statement" made by President George W. Bush on August 9, 2001, and President Bush's Executive Order of June 20, 2007 that required the NIH to create a "Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry" that would include non-ES cells.
EXECUTIVE ORDER
- - - - - - -
REMOVING BARRIERS TO RESPONSIBLE SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN STEM CELLS
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1.  Policy.  Research involving human embryonic stem cells and human non-embryonic stem cells has the potential to lead to better understanding and treatment of many disabling diseases and conditions.  Advances over the past decade in this promising scientific field have been encouraging, leading to broad agreement in the scientific community that the research should be supported by Federal funds.
For the past 8 years, the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to fund and conduct human embryonic stem cell research has been limited by Presidential actions.  The purpose of this order is to remove these limitations on scientific inquiry, to expand NIH support for the exploration of human stem cell research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America's scientists to important new discoveries and new therapies for the benefit of humankind.
Sec. 2.  Research.  The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary), through the Director of NIH, may support and conduct responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research, to the extent permitted by law.
Sec. 3.  Guidance.  Within 120 days from the date of this order, the Secretary, through the Director of NIH, shall review existing NIH guidance and other widely recognized guidelines on human stem cell research, including provisions establishing appropriate safeguards, and issue new NIH guidance on such research that is consistent with this order.  The Secretary, through NIH, shall review and update such guidance periodically, as appropriate.
Sec. 4.  General Provisions. 
     (a)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
     (b)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
          (i)   authority granted by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
          (ii)  functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
     (c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
Sec. 5.  Revocations. 
     (a)  The Presidential statement of August 9, 2001, limiting Federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells, shall have no further effect as a statement of governmental policy.
     (b)  Executive Order 13435 of June 20, 2007, which supplements the August 9, 2001, statement on human embryonic stem cell research, is revoked.
 
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 9, 2009.

March 9, 2009
Obama Lifts Bush’s Strict Limits on Stem Cell Research
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON — Pledging that his administration will "make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology," President Obama on Monday lifted the Bush administration’s strict limits on human embryonic stem cell research. The latest on President Obama, the new administration and other news from Washington and around the nation...Read More

Obama overturns Bush policy on stem cells
CNN-Washington
President Obama signed an executive order Monday repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. Obama's move overturns an order signed by President Bush in 2001 that barred the National Institutes of Health from funding research on embryonic stem cells beyond using 60 cell lines that existed at that time...Read More

Transcript: Obama's Remarks on Stem Cell Research

By: Barrack Obama
Following is the transcript of President Obama's remarks, as provided by The White House: Today, with the executive order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers, doctors and innovators, patients and loved ones have hoped for, and fought for, these past eight years: We will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. We will also vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield...Read More
 
Obama Lifts Stem Cell Ban but Opens Debate on Embryo Creation
By: Bernadine Healy, M.D.
You can still hear the popping of the champagne corks. President Obama, surrounded by an exuberant and celebratory crowd peppered with notables of all political persuasion, has lifted former President Bush's ban on federal funding of research on human embryos for stem cell work. But Obama's remarks left the door open for embryo research that involves more than the frozen embryos left over from in vitro fertilization that Congress and most of the public seem to support...Read More

The Politics Behind Obama's Embryonic Stem Cell Research Decision
By: Dan Gilgoff
President Obama lifts restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research today, providing a moment to mull over the politics
of an issue that typically plays second fiddle to abortion and gay marriage in the nation's culture wars. I see four political forces shaping today's White House action and the fallout...Read More

News Analysis Rethink Stem Cells? Science Already Has

By: Nicholas Wade
With soaring oratory, President Obama on Monday removed a substantial practical nuisance that has long made life difficult for stem cell researchers. He freed biomedical researchers using federal money (a vast majority) to work on more than the small number of human embryonic stem cell lines that were established before Aug. 9, 2001. In practical terms, federally financed researchers will now find it easier to do a particular category of stem cell experiments that, though still important, has been somewhat eclipsed by new advances...Read More

President Obama Reverses Bush's Stem Cell Research Ban
By Kenneth R. Bazinet
WASHINGTON – President Obama reversed a Bush administration order and vowed Monday to "vigorously support" stem cell research that scientists hope will lead to cures for deadly ailments like diabetes and Parkinson's disease. "We will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers, doctors and innovators, patients and loved ones have hoped for and fought for these past eight years. We will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research," Obama said to cheers at the White House...Read More

March 8, 2009

US stem cell climate improves, raising concerns elsewhere
By: Nayanah Siva
The world's first clinical trial using embryonic stem cells has received approval in the US, leaving experts in other countries to ponder whether an improved climate for such research within the US will force them to compete more fiercely to retain top scientists in this field. Just three days after US President Barack Obama stood at his inauguration and promised to "restore science to its rightful place," the country's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the biotech company Geron approval to conduct a stem cell trial in people with acute spinal injury...Read More

Obama Is Leaving Some Stem Cell Issues to Congress
By: Sheryl Gay Stolberg
WASHINGTON — While lifting the Bush administration’s restrictions on federally financed human embryonic stem cell research, President Obama intends to avoid the thorniest question in the debate: whether taxpayer dollars should be used to experiment on embryos themselves, two senior administration officials said Sunday. The officials, who provided details of the announcement Mr. Obama will make Monday at the White House, said the president would leave it to Congress to determine whether the long-standing legislative ban on federal financing for human embryo experiments should also be overturned...Read More

March 7, 2009
F.D.A. Approves a Stem Cell Trial
By: Andrew Pollack
In a research milestone, the federal government will allow the world’s first test in people of a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells. Federal drug regulators said that political considerations had no role in the decision. Nevertheless, the move coincided with the inauguration of President Obama, who has pledged to remove some of the financing restrictions placed on the field by President George W. Bush. The clearance of the clinical trial — of a treatment for spinal cord injury — is to be announced Friday by Geron, the biotechnology company that first applied to the Food and Drug Administration to conduct the trial last March. The F.D.A. had first said no, asking for more data...Read More

Obama Stem Cell Decision Called 'Deadly Executive Order'
By Robert Roy Britt
President Obama is expected on Monday to reverse limitations set by the Bush administration for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The expected move, hailed by many as science winning out over politics, is seen as immoral by others, who believe that a human embryo deserves the same moral and legal protection as any human life...Read More

March 4, 2009
First FDA-approved embryonic stem cell trial
Geron Corporation announced the FDA approval of its investigational new drug application (IND) for a Phase I trial of GRNOPC1 in patients with acute spinal cord injury...Read More

March 1, 2009
Virus-free pluripotency for human cells: Stem-cell advance could bring tailored treatments closer.
By: Erika Check Hayden & Monya Baker
For the first time, specialized human cells have been transformed into a state similar to that seen in embryonic stem cells, without using viruses. The advance edges stem-cell biologists closer to clearing a barrier to using reprogrammed cells for therapies and drug screening. "The field has been waiting for these papers," says Marie Csete, chief scientific officer at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco...Read More

California's Stem Cell Program - CIRM

Here's a great website dedicated to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM):  California Stem Cell Report

Stem Cell Community Updates

We will soon be joining an international organization to share human ES cell information throughout the world.  Meanwhile, our latest gene expression data is available in the September 18, 2008 issue of Nature.

Gene Expression Data:
  Whole genome expression analysis of stem cells- downloadable data and FAQ.

Human Cell Signaling Pathway Interaction Database: A collaboration between the National Cancer Institute and Nature Publishing Group.
 
Dedicated Stem Cell Patent Website:
    A useful and comprehensive guide to stem cell patents

Snake Oil Stem Cell "Therapeutics"      Chances are that a few of our Google ads (to the left) are advertising stem cell treatments. Remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't.  Here's an archive of cautionary commentaries

Stem Cell Database:    A searchable database of more than 250 human embryonic stem cell lines worldwide.

Cell lines available: 260
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