The President said federal funds could be used to fund stem cell research on "more than 60 genetically diverse stem cell lines," but there's been a lot of consternation about that number. Now it turns out there are only twelve lines.
"Many of the lines sanctioned by the president are not available," says Leonard Zon, president of the International Society of Stem Cell Research and a researcher at Harvard Medical School in Boston . "Some of these lines have patent issues and some were never cell lines to begin with."
For once, I'm not going to accuse the President of intentionally hampering work which would anger his friends on the right; I suspect there was a definitional problem. Nonetheless, the situation is serious and has potentially damaging impact on research into various life-threatening maladies. He ought to reconsider.
Posted by Linkmeister at November 6, 2003 08:55 AM