The day after the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it was ready to start approving stem cell lines for federal funding, the hallways of the World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore, Maryland, were abuzz with excitement — and confusion.
The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) has convened a new committee tasked with weeding out companies that offer unapproved stem cell ‘therapies’, the ISSCR’s new president Irving Weissman announced today at the World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore, Maryland. Read more
A theme that emerged time and again at this year’s World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore, Maryland, was the need for stable and reliable funding for the nascent and much-hyped science. Venture capital backers often expect returns after three to five years. Government-supported grants generally operate on a similar timescale. But stem cell research doesn’t offer such quick turnarounds. Read more
After the fanfare surrounding President Barack Obama’s executive order on 9 March, which lifted Bush-era restrictions on funding human embryonic stem cell research, the White House has been noticeably quiet about further expanding the science — one of the Obama’s campaign promises. “We need to remind the President of this type of research,” Delaware congressman Michael Castle (Republican) said today at the World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore, Maryland, the fifth annual summit presented by the non-profit Wellington, Florida-based Genetics Policy Institute.
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