Stem Cell Scientist Takes Questions

There are two levels. First, the amount of money appropriated to the National Institute of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF) or other government body that funds research must receive adequate money to do the research, if the research is deemed meritorious by a group of peer scientists who are not government employees. Under the Clinton Administration and the leadership of Harold Varmus, that reached about 22 to 25 percent of grants deemed meritorious for funding. The current level for investigator initiated (so called R01) grants is 7 to 15 percent, depending on the particular government agency that funds this research. The current spending bill before congress has not yet been approved and is at levels that we have now if the President's budget holds. Attempts to increase this modestly have been passed in one or another chamber of the congress. No bill is pending that would restore the 22 to 25 percent of approved grants funded. Of course, NIH is part of a government that must decide on many issues; certainly budget increases for one segment will be taken from another, unless increased funds come in. What you see are the choices of the Bush administration.

At the second level, government makes policy about what it will fund. President Bush announced in an Executive Order on Aug. 9, 2001, that the government would support only that ES cell research with lines made before that date. No support would be allowed for lines made by nucleus transfer to eggs (see E. Schindler response). Later President Bush backed the Weldon-Brownback bill to criminalize the nucleus transfer research and some other ES research in a speech from the Rose Garden. The Weldon-Brownback bill includes one year in jail and $10,000,000 fine for those transgressing the law, if approved. It included the same penalties for doctors who prescribe treatments based on these unapproved therapies, even if the treatments were done abroad and even included penalties for patients receiving these therapies when they came back to the U.S. The president cited his own moral judgment for this decision, and introduced religious leaders who shared his opinion and backed his order. Later, Sen. Brownback, R-Kan., proposed another bill banning certain types of human stem cell testing in the brains or other tissues of mice, and this too was backed by President Bush in his 2006 State of the Union Address. The same criminal penalties apply for ES and nucleus transfer research.

Because of these actions states such as California have exercised their state rights to fund research not funded by the federal government. Many other countries support and oversee the various aspects of stem cell research. I asked Elias Zerhouni, the director of the National Institute of Health, a few years ago if he was allowed to distribute to his NIH researchers cell lines that have or could treat human diseases if they were made outside of the guidelines. He said he could not. The United States, through NIH, has developed the premier medical research establishment in the world. It is sad that NIH funded researchers will not be able to participate in research using unapproved lines, no matter how promising they are, and how fast such research would lead to patient treatments.