Does the National Institutes of Health fund stem cell research now?
Yes. Many scientists are funded to study the 22 human embryonic stem cell lines that were created before 2001. But those cells are simply not sufficient for much of the work that must be done to understand development and disease. These lines do not mirror the ethnic and racial diversity in our society. Work that depends on these lines therefore runs the risk of developing new therapies that only work in white people. Moreover, all of these lines are contaminated with mouse cells and could be prohibited from use in patients by the Food and Drug Administration. Finally, none of these lines can be used to model inherited human diseases. In July 2006, President George W. Bush vetoed a federal bill that would have expanded the number of cell lines that could be studied using federal funds. This legislation had received broad bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, though not quite enough support to over-ride the Presidential veto. Research on human embryonic stem cells is also leg
