NIH Ethics Requirements Complicate Research Of Some Embryonic Stem Cells

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Article Date: 17 Mar 2010 - 6:00 PDT


Although restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research have been lifted under the Obama administration, some researchers are finding the new ethical requirements burdensome, the Washington Post reports.

Under the George W. Bush administration, only 21 stem-cell "lines" were permitted to receive federal research funding. President Obama relaxed the restrictions but allowed the National Institutes of Health to issue ethics guidelines. The guidelines in part require that stem cell research using federal funds meet certain ethical criteria, such as making sure that the people who donated the embryos were informed of other options. Researchers who have existing federal grants can keep studying the "Bush" lines, but any research that involves new grants, even research using the old lines, must meet the NIH guidelines.

It is unclear how many of the original 21 lines meet the new ethics guidelines. According to the Post, NIH has approved 43 lines, only one of which is from the original group of 21 lines. In addition, NIH still has 115 lines to review, and only two of those are "Bush" lines.

Timothy Kamp, director of stem cell and regenerative medicine center at the University of Wisconsin, said, "Some of these lines were derived more than a decade ago," meaning that relevant records may not be available, and may not have available records, while "some of the researchers who derived the lines aren't around anymore" or "might not be motivated to provide those records in a timely fashion." He added, "We're losing access to those lines in this approval process for some period of time -- maybe indefinitely. They are the main workhorses for many of our projects." Kamp says that NIH should revise its guidelines to grandfather in the existing lines or give researchers a two-year grace period so that they can continue their research using new grants.

Lana Skirboll, NIH's director of science policy, said the agency is "sympathetic," but she added, "Our responsibility is to make sure we're conducting research with lines that were responsibly derived" (Stein, Washington Post, 3/15).

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