Cross-posted from The Great BeyondObama’s decision made scientists cheer, but raised a question for CIRM: how would its leaders make the case that the agency is still necessary – especially when the state is trying to crawl out of a fiscal crisis? The California voters created CIRM in 2004 in part because the federal government wasn’t funding much human embryonic stem cell research. But with the hands of the National Institutes of Health no longer tied, long-time critics have said CIRM should “adopt a secondary role to NIH” or even close shop entirely.  Read more

Just last week, three labs reported on two techniques to reprogram human cells without permanently inserting the viral genes normally necessary to render cells pluripotent. At least one headline proclaimed that ES cells were obsolete.  Read more

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.  Read more

Meredith Wadman’s article on NatureNews explores why Obama has not yet lifted the ban on federal funds for human embryonic stem cell research. Some say that he’s preoccupied with the economic crisis; others that the Administration feels simply reversing the executive order isn’t enough, and so new legislation is required. One worry: the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which predates the Bush funding ban, might be interpreted to prohibit funds for the research. This legislation, which has been renewed yearly ever since its enactment in 1995, prohibits the use of federal funds that create or destroy embryos. Many legal scholars doubt it would apply to research on cells after the embryos have been derived, but the concern is real.  Read more