On September 25, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education held its 14th hearing on human embryonic stem cell research. During his opening remarks, Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA) expressed his concern that the United States could lose its lead in the stem cell field if there are further delays in funding for the research. In August 2001, the President announced that he would allow federal funds to be used for research on roughly 70 existing human embryonic stem cell lines.
During the hearing, Dr. Elias Zerhouni of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spoke about the role that the NIH plays in “advancing the field of stem cell research.” Advocating both human embryonic stem cell research and adult stem cell research, Dr. Zerhouni said that “the NIH should continue to fund research on both types of cells.” He added that there have been “significant scientific discoveries” in the past year, involving both types of stem cells. Recently, he noted, scientists have shown that human embryonic stem cells can be “directed to develop into cells resembling nerve cells, cardiac muscle cells and insulin producing cells. These are the cells that might someday be used to treat Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, and type I diabetes.”
In addition, Dr. Zerhouni noted that if the “stem cell research community” is to move forward, then the number of stem cell researchers must be increased and more human stem cells must be available for research. He added that as a step toward “overcoming this challenge,” the NIH has announced five infrastructure grant awards, totaling $4.3 million, to “five sources on the NIH Registry holding 23 of the eligible derivations.” These awards, he said, “will fund the expansion, testing, quality assurance, and distribution of cells.”
Dr. Curt I. Civin of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine discussed some of the “hurdles” many scientists have experienced in “attempting to conduct embryonic stem cell research.” He explained that the eligible stem cell lines available through the NIH’s registry are accessible only to those “persistent and patient enough to jump through a series of hoops and endure lengthy waits.” He added that of the lines themselves, “little is known,” and without this information, “individual researchers are essentially flying blind.”
Also advocating the increase of available stem cell lines, Dr. George Daley of Harvard Medical School said that “federal funding guidelines are currently so restrictive that they are already threatening this fledging yet highly promising field of biomedical research.”
