The legal tangle over the status of human embryonic stem cell research in the United States has slowed stem cell research as a whole, reports a survey released today in Cell Stem Cell.
Aaron Levine, an analyst at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, asked 370 US scientists how ongoing uncertainty about the legality of human embryonic stem cell research was affecting their work. The survey, conducted in November 2010, came soon after the National Institutes of Health was permitted to restart its funding for human embryonic stem cell research; funding was halted from late August to early September, after a US District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction stopping the research in response to a lawsuit.
Levine’s survey found that the temporary ban on research had a widespread impact in the human embryonic stem cell research community, with 75 percent of survey respondents reporting that it had some impact on their work and 24 percent reporting that the impact was substantial. What’s more, 41 percent of stem cell researchers not working with human embryonic stem cells also reported that the temporary ban had an impact on their work.
Perhaps more surprising, however, was Levine’s finding that the ongoing uncertainty around the legality of stem cell research was having is much or more of an impact on the field than the temporary ban (see graph). Almost half of the human embryonic stem cell researchers surveyed said this ongoing uncertainty has a substantial impact on their research plans (black), with an additional 28 percent calling the impact moderate (green). Far fewer said the uncertainty had minimal (red) or no impact (blue).
And 47 percent of scientists who work with stem cells that are “pluripotent” – able to differentiate into other types of cells – but are not human embryonic stem cells, as well as 22 percent of scientists studying non-pluripotent stem cells, also said this ongoing uncertainty affects their plans.
“I think it’s clear that the uncertainty is impacting human embryonic stem cell research,” Levine said. “I also think the study suggests that the harm is broader than just in human embryonic stem cell research.”
Scientists in the survey said they are delaying plans to begin research on human embryonic stem cells, delaying ongoing research, and transitioning away from research involving human embryonic stem cells. He also said that some scientists funded by state stem cell research agencies, such as those in California and New York, said they felt somewhat protected from the uncertainty, but still indicated that the uncertainty is harming their work.
Levine’s paper calls on the US Congress to pass legislation “to provide a clear legal basis for the federal funding of hESC research.”
Blue = no impact
Red = minimal impact
Green = moderate impact
Black = substantial impact
Courtesy Cell Stem Cell