NIH says no more federal money for stem-cell work

WASHINGTON

The National Institutes of Health announced yesterday that it had suspended funding new human embryonic stem-cell research and that all federally funded experiments already under way would be cut off when they come up for renewal if a new court order was not overturned.

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The announcement -- which confirmed fears among proponents that the ruling would result in a comprehensive freeze in federal support for stem-cell research -- came in response to a court order Monday barring the government from funding the research because it involves the destruction of embryos.

"Frankly, I was stunned, as was virtually everyone else at the NIH yesterday, at the judicial decision," said NIH Director Francis Collins. "This decision has the potential to do serious harm to one of the most promising areas of biomedical research."

The Justice Department said that the administration planned to appeal the ruling, but no further details were released.

In issuing the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said that the funding violated the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, a 1999 law intended to prevent federal tax dollars from being used to destroy human embryos.

Days-old embryos are destroyed to obtain embryonic stem cells, which researchers hope will be able to cure Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, spinal-cord injuries and a host of other ailments because they can be turned into almost any type of tissue in the body. The federal government has funded research using the cells as long as the money is not used directly to destroy the embryos. Scientists have conducted studies only on cells obtained using private funding. But Lamberth ruled that distinction was invalid.

The ruling drew praise from the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys who helped with the lawsuit filed by two researchers who work on adult stem cells and who argued they could be harmed by additional competition.

"The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments -- prohibited by federal law -- that destroy human life. The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos," said Steven H. Aden, the group's senior legal counsel.

In the wake of the ruling, 50 requests for new funding that were being assessed by the NIH have been "pulled out of the stack" and will not be considered further, Collins said. About a dozen other requests for $15 million to $20 million that had gone through the full review and were likely to be approved were frozen. Also, 22 grants totalling about $54 million due for renewal in September will be cut off.

An additional 199 grants for about $131 million that had already been awarded will be able to continue, Collins said.

But those grants, including 143 worth about $95 million that are up for renewal in the next year, have to stop if the situation isn't resolved by the time they're up for review.

The renewed debate over embryonic stem cells highlights the advances and complications that have arisen in the field since its controversial beginnings.

The problem is their origin -- human embryos. In order to get stem cells, embryos must be destroyed.

The scientist who isolated human embryonic stem cells in 1998 struggled with this issue, consulting ethicists before proceeding. But in the end, the scientist, Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, decided to go ahead because the embryos were from fertility clinics and were going to be destroyed anyway. And, he reasoned, the work could greatly benefit humanity.

All along, though, scientists wondered if they could sidestep the ethical debate by creating embryonic stem cells without the embryos. A few years ago, two groups of researchers -- one led by Thomson -- did just that. They discovered that all they had to do was add four genes and a cell would reprogram itself back to its original state when it was a stem cell in an embryo.

Now researchers are trying to figure out whether stem cells made by the reprogramming process really are the same as ones taken from embryos. Some say they found subtle differences between these cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells and embryonic stem cells.

Others are not so sure.

Some say they need embryonic stem cells as a basis of comparison, a gold standard to see if the newer reprogrammed cells are as good.