Posts Tagged ‘NIH’
Court Ruling Reinstates Federal Embryonic Stem Cell Funding (For Now)
The lifting of the funding is a victory of sorts for those in the scientific community who support President Obama’s policy, which allows federal funding of embryonic stem cell research on stem cell lines outside of the original 21 allowed under his predecessor’s policy. But the issue is far from settled, and research that has already been suspended by the National Institutes of Health is likely to remain on hold until a final decision is made by the Court of Appeals.
That could take awhile. The three-judge panel was careful to note that their lifting of the funding ban is in no way an endorsement of the administration’s position on the matter but rather a means to provide them with more time to consider all the issues. So while the federal money spigot can once again flow, many projects on hold will likely remain that way.
Moreover, the uncertainty that the controversy introduces into the scientific community may make it harder for some projects to drum up private funding, as backers may be apprehensive to sink cash into research that may end up collapsing under a court ruling anyhow.
In the meantime, opponents of the funding have until September 14th to hand in their response to the appeals court, while the government – representing the NIH – has until the September 20th. Neither the Department of Justice nor the NIH chose to comment on the injunction today.
For more, last week's New Yorker has on the NIH and the stem cell debate.
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NIH Research Chief: Shut Down Human Embryonic Stem Cell Experiments Immediately
The move comes after an injunction barring federal funding for stem cell research
The move, reported in ScienceInsider, comes on the heels of a that blocked the use of federal funds to study new embryonic stem cell lines. A judge said President Obama's 2009 executive order violates a federal law barring the use of federal funds to destroy embryos.
Scientists are seething over today's ruling, announced in a memo from NIH intramural research chief Michael Gottesman. According to ScienceInsider, Gottesman said: "The injunction ... is applicable to the use of human embryonic stem cells in intramural research projects. In light of this determination, effective today, intramural scientists who use human ES cell lines should initiate procedures to terminate these projects. Procedures that will conserve and protect the research resources should be followed."
So far, outside labs are unaffected -- intramural means researchers in labs on the NIH campus, while extramural refers to researchers at other institutions who receive NIH grants.
The agency has eight research projects that use human embryonic stem cells, most if not all of which use lines approved under the Bush Administration back in 2001.
Under Obama's rules, federal money could be used for research on cell lines in addition to the ones Bush greenlighted nine years ago. After the injunction, scientists were hopeful they could still use the original cell lines -- but now the future looks murky.
ScienceInsider says the Department of Justice might ask the courts to delay the injunction, which could allow experiments to continue uninterrupted.
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Federal Judge Halts Obama’s New Embryonic Stem Cell Policy, Leaving Research in Limbo
The ruling, according to Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court for D.C., should return the federal policy to the "status quo," an ambiguous statement that some understand as a return to the Bush administration's policy of limiting federally funded research to work on the 21 embryonic stem cell lines already created in 2001. But some scientists worry that the ruling may condemn all embryonic stem cell research illegal, including research that was allowed under the Bush policy.
President Obama moved early in his presidency to expand the kinds of stem cell research that can receive federal dollars. The government still cannot fund research that directly destroyed embyos, but under Obama's rules federal money could fund research on cell lines outside of those original 21 the Bush rules had limited researchers to. So if private financing could be used to obtain or create new stem cells (usually from fertility clinics and with consent of unpaid donors), federal funds could then be used to conduct research on those cells.
Yesterday's ruling strikes down the line between embryonic destruction and later work on cells resulting from that destruction. What's unclear is how far it goes. Some scientists worry that the ruling may make illegal even work that was allowed under the Bush policy. Some think that if they continue the research they were doing yesterday they may be in violation of the law, while others have interpreted it to mean that research may continue but the National Institutes of Health must use the Bush-era guidelines for federal grants going forward.
In the meantime, some researchers have simply told their labs not to use anything in their research that was paid for with federal dollars until Department of Justice lawyers figured out exactly what the ruling means. More on this as it develops, but for the time being sensitive stem cell experiments nationwide appear to be in a state of limbo. More details on the legal minutiae are available through the NYT link below.
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