Change in federal stem cell funding policy spurs interest in field.

T he recent action by the Obama administration to overturn restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is expected to breathe new life into the field. The change in policy, which was made offi cial on March 9, lifted the ban on the use of federal funds for any research involving human embryonic stem cell lines established after August 9, 2001, when then-President George W. Bush announced an executive order creating the restrictions. A 1996 law still bans the use of federal funds in the destruction of a human embryo, a necessary step in creating such cell lines, but those created with private or state funding are now eligible to be used in federally funded projects. “At this moment, the full promise of stem cell research remains unknown, and it should not be overstated,” said President Barack Obama, announcing his executive order overturning Bush’s. “But scientists believe these tiny cells may have the potential to help us understand, and possibly cure, some of our most devastating diseases and conditions ... Parkinson’s, cancer, heart disease, and others that affect millions of Americans and the people who love them.” The mention of cancer cheered many oncologists in particular. But more broadly, the change in policy is an enormous morale booster for many investigators, according to stakeholders across the nation, who say they have begun to see an uptick of interest among young scientists since the new president took offi ce in January. “The science itself has now been given a huge signal that this fi eld is open for business by the federal government, and so young people in particular who were steering away from this fi eld will now say, ‘Okay, no problem, I will be able to go into this fi eld and do my work because it won’t be a dead end, ’ ” said Susan Solomon, chief executive offi cer of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, which was established to raise private funding for stem cell research. On the West Coast, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the umbrella for that state’s substantial funding effort, is also seeing renewed interest among young scientists, said CIRM President Alan Trounson, Ph.D. “We get a lot of questions, people writing to us, ringing us up, asking how can they get into stem cell research,” he said. That is in stark contrast to the past 8 years, when the fi eld “had nobody going into it except for folks in California and a very small group of researchers elsewhere at elite institutions or ones that we could fi nd or fund,” Solomon said. “There were maybe 150 people or so in the East Room on Monday when a bunch of us were down there with the president for the signing,” she added. “If it had been a 500-person room, you would have had everybody who is doing any serious work with embryonic stem cells in that room.”