Obama to overturn Bush policy on stem cells

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is ending former President George W. Bush's limits on using federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research, with advisers calling the move a clear signal that science — not political ideology — will guide the administration.

Obama was to sign an executive order on stem cells and memo on science Monday in an East Room ceremony, a long-promised move that would fulfill a campaign promise. Advisers said it was part of a broader declaration on science that would guide the administration's policies on matters ranging from renewable energy to climate change.

"I would simply say this memorandum is not concerned solely — or even specifically — with stem cell research," said Harold Varmus, chairman of the White House's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. He said it would address how the government uses science and who is advising officials across federal agencies.

Bush limited taxpayer money for embryonic stem cell research to a small number of stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. Many of those faced drawbacks. Hundreds more of such lines — groups of cells that can continue to propagate in lab dishes — have been created since then. Scientists say those newer lines are healthier and better suited to creating treatments for diseases, but they were largely off-limits to researchers who took federal dollars.

"We've got eight years of science to make up for," said Dr. Curt Civin, whose research allowed scientists to isolate stem cells and who now serves as the founding director of the University of Maryland Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. "Now the silly restrictions are lifted."

The proposed changes do not fund creation of new lines, nor specify which existing lines can be used. They mean that scientists, who until now have had to rely on private donations to work with these newer stem cell lines, can apply for government money for the research, just like they do for studies of gene therapy or other treatment approaches.

At the same event, the president planned to announce safeguards through the National Institutes of Health so science is protected from political interference.

"We view what happened with stem cell research in the last administration is one manifestation of failure to think carefully about how federal support of science and the use of scientific advice occurs," Varmus said.

Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body. Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases — such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics, cells that could help those with Parkinson's disease or maybe even Alzheimer's, or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.

Bush and his supporters said they were defending human life; days-old embryos — typically from fertility-clinic leftovers otherwise destined to be thrown away — are destroyed for the stem cells.

The long-promised move will allow a rush of research aimed at one day better treating, if not curing, ailments from diabetes to paralysis — research that has drawn broad support, including from notables such as Nancy Reagan, widow of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan, and the late Christopher Reeve.

The move also will highlight divisions within the Republican Party, now in the minority and lacking votes in Congress to stop Obama.

Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, said the focus should be on the economy, not on a long-simmering debate over stem cells.

"Frankly, federal funding of embryonic stem cell research can bring on embryo harvesting, perhaps even human cloning that occurs," he said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "We don't want that. ... And certainly that is something that we ought to be talking about, but let's take care of business first. People are out of jobs."

Obama to Restore ‘Science Integrity’ as Part of Stem-Cell Shift

Rob Waters and Roger Runningen

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will reverse the U.S. government’s ban on funding stem-cell research today and pledge to “use sound, scientific practice and evidence, instead of dogma” to guide federal policy, an adviser said.

Harold Varmus, co-chair of a science advisory group to the President, said Obama will ask the White House Office of Science and Technology to create guidelines to incorporate ‘scientific integrity’ into decision-making by U.S. agencies. The action on stem cells, which can grow into any kind of tissue, may help speed research into cures for major illness.

Academic laboratories, led by Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and companies already using stem-cell technology, led by Geron Corp., of Menlo Park, California, could gain tens of millions of dollars in funding because of the decision. A “significant amount” of $10 billion given the National Institutes of Health in Obama’s stimulus plan will go to this area of research, Varmus said.  “We view what happened with stem-cell research in the last administration as one manifestation of the failure to think carefully about how government use of scientific advice occurs,” said Varmus, a Nobel prize winner who is president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, in a conference call with reporters yesterday. “Public policy must be guided by sound, scientific advice.”

The order involving embryonic stem cells will reverse a decision by former President George W. Bush to ban federal support for all but 21 cell colonies created before 2001.

Derived From Embryos

Stem cells derived from days-old human embryos have the potential to form any of the body’s 200 or so cell types, such as nerve cells or brain cells, and to repair or replace damaged tissue or organs. Adult stem cells, found in living tissue, have a more limited potential to become other cell types.

Bush said it was morally wrong to destroy embryos to develop stem cells. Researchers say that policy held back scientific advances and the development of cures.  “The Obama announcement will energize the stem-cell research community,” said George Daley, a member of the Harvard Stem-Cell Institute and researcher at Children’s Hospital in Boston. “The infusion of NIH funding from the stimulus package and the President’s endorsement will allow us to jump-start our projects. I am already getting e-mails from patients and colleagues applauding the decision.”

The elevation of science will extend beyond stem-cell research and into policies on health, energy and environmental programs, including global warming, said Melody C. Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, who joined Varmus on the call with reporters.

120 Days

The National Institutes of Health, the government’s chief health-research agency, will have 120 days to develop new rules on stem cells, the White House said. Officials of the NIH have said they can prepare the guidelines more quickly than that.

The NIH has already begun requesting proposals for research projects using some of the $10 billion it was awarded from the economic stimulus.

“It’s fully anticipated that much of the stimulus money, a significant amount of it, will go to support work in this broad area,” said Varmus, who was director of the NIH from 1993 to 1999. Varmus was co-recipient of a Nobel in 1989 with J. Michael Bishop for their work on cancer genes.

Shares of stem-cell companies, which rallied in extended trading on March 6, after news of Obama’s decision became public, may gain further in today’s trading.

Company Gains

Geron gained $1.51, or 39 percent, to $5.38. Cytori Therapeutics Inc. of San Diego gained 14 cents, or 6 percent, to $2.31. StemCells Inc. of Palo Alto, California, rose 92 cents, or 66 percent, to $2.30 in extended trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Opponents of the research consider embryos to be human life and research that destroys them to be immoral. They say stem cells from adult tissue and umbilical-cord blood are available without harming embryos and already in clinical use, while treatments from embryonic cells are years off.

Bush used the first televised address of his presidency, on August 9, 2001, to announce his policy banning the use of federal funds to support research on cell colonies, or lines, created after that date. Hundreds of newer lines can be used only by researchers funded from private sources.

Congress voted twice to overturn the Bush restrictions and Bush vetoed the measures both times.

Three-Year-Old Advance

A three-year-old advance allowed researchers to turn ordinary skin cells into powerful stem cells similar to those made from embryos. These cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or IPS cells, were first created by Shinya Yamanaka, a researcher at Kyoto University in Japan.

Yamanaka left Japan on March 7 to fly to Washington to attend the signing ceremony today. Reached by telephone during a stopover in San Francisco, he said he supported President Obama’s decision.

“I thought I should accept this invitation because many people seem to think that because of IPS cells, embryonic stem cells are no longer required,” he said. “That is not the case.”

For Lauren Stanford, a 17-year-old high school student who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 6, Obama’s order was the culmination of years of personal lobbying that has included testifying before the U.S. Senate and speaking at last summer’s Democratic National Convention.

‘Signing Hope’

“It’s like he’s signing hope for people with diabetes and other diseases into law,” Stanford said in a telephone interview. “I think hope can be a medicine too, it goes a long way in helping a kid whose life is very difficult to just feel a little better.”  Like most people with the Type 1 form of diabetes, Stanford must continuously monitor her blood-sugar level and inject herself with insulin several times a day to control her sugar levels. Type I diabetics don’t produce insulin, a naturally occurring hormone, and researchers have reported progress in their efforts to turn stem cells into insulin-producing cells that could be transplanted into the body.

Jonathan Slaek, director of the Stem Cell Institute at the University of Minnesota, said Obama’s action will enable researchers to use a wider range of cell lines, and also “improves the image of the USA.”

Diabetes Research  Researchers in Minnesota are studying insulin-secreting cells for treatment of diabetes, among other projects.  “The international perception is that there’s no stem-cell research allowed in America,” said Slaek, who is British. “In terms of scientific reputation and business climate, I think that message will probably be the most important.”

Still, bringing products to the market “is quite a ways away,” perhaps 10 years to 20 years, he said.

“We recognize there are a range of” religious beliefs concerning stem cell research and “a constant back-and-forth here,” said the White House’s Barnes. There is also a “a broad swath of the American public that does support the steps we’re going to take.”  The issue has become a key issue for some pro-life supporters.

“Taxpayer dollars should not aid destruction of innocent human life,” said House Republican leader John Boehner.

Vatican Response

In Rome, the Vatican’s newspaper deplored Obama’s reversal, repeating Catholic doctrine that such research in the eyes of the church is “deeply immoral,” the Associated Press reported.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called Obama’s planned reversal “a slap in the face” to Americans opposed to the destruction of human embryos.