One of Barack Obama's first acts as president is expected to be a reversal of the Bush administration's restrictions on federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells.
Maryland scientists say that's good news because it will uncork the nation's largest source of funding for promising medical research using hundreds of new cell lines, including many offering clues to the nature of genetically based diseases. Those cells are now off-limits for federal grants.
"Taking the largest funder off the table had an impact. Putting it back will certainly have a positive impact," said Dr. Paul Fishman, director of the Alzheimer's Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Researchers and their institutions are also hopeful that lifting the Bush administration's ban would end a logistical nightmare. Fear of violating the federal edict forced researchers to keep everything from pipettes to buildings paid for with federal dollars separate from anything and anyone involved with stem cell lines not approved for federal funding.
"It's going to make a huge difference," said Dr. Chi Dang, vice dean for research at the Johns Hopkins University's Institute for Cell Engineering. "Especially if I'm an investigator working on both types of cell lines, I have to be very careful. ... It's been a nightmare for some institutions."
But no one expects any funding floodgates to open. Celebration in Maryland research labs has been tempered by an awareness that the research budget of the National Institutes of Health has been essentially flat since 2003.
Until the president and Congress provide more money, stem cell researchers will have to elbow other investigators aside to win more of the available NIH money, said Story Landis, who heads the NIH Stem Cell Task Force. "We would increase funding as appropriate given the quality of the science in those proposals," she said. But until Jan. 20, she stressed, the Bush policies remain in force.
Scientists believe human stem cells hold medical promise because they are able to transform themselves, with proper prodding, into virtually any type of tissue.
Cultured in a lab, they could grow to form new skin, bone or other body tissues to repair the donor's own traumatic injuries. Or, injected into the body they could replace faulty tissues responsible for such diseases as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or diabetes.
