After a lot of wondering about when it would happen, several news outlets are announcing that President Obama will overturn restrictions on funding human embryonic stem cell research on Monday morning, still within 50 days of his taking the oath of office. Some pundits had expected Obama to lift the restrictions within the first days of his presidency, feeding speculation that Obama wanted federal funding for the research to be authorized by Congressional authority.

Here’s the story from the Washington Post. The discussion of the topic on CNN touted that it was bipartisan.

It will be interesting to see if this changes the grants that the NIH can offer in its Challenge grants governing stem cells.

Here’s Reuters, which says that details are sparse but will include general measures to increase scientific integrity in the administration.

See links to previous coverage on this blog.

What’s Obama waiting for?

News round-up: Obama and the funding ban.

Here’s a comparison between how the UK, Germany, and US have pursued policies around human embryonic stem cell research.