Aggregated News
The first Congressional hearing on stem cells since 2001 came together suddenly. Representative Diana DeGette (Democrat, Colorado), who has already put together twice-vetoed legislation promoting embryonic stem cell research, said she was planning to put forth new legislation that could include a regulatory role for the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland, that might extend to research not funded by the agency.
The goal is to lift the federal funding ban on embryonic stem (ES) cells created after August 2001 and also set up the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as what DeGette called a "key player" in a new system for ethical oversight of all cell-based research.
"All this private and state development is being done without ethical oversight," said DeGette's spokesperson, Kristofer Eisenla. "A lot of the substance of the bill is still in development, but the overall goal is that all cell-based research would be done under strict ethical guidelines that would be overseen by the NIH."
How that would play out is still unclear, but it could be a huge expansion of the NIH's role...