U.S. Researchers Cleared To Work With 13 More Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
The first new embryonic stem cell lines are set to roll out after President Obama lifted Bush-era restrictions last spring President Obama lifted the Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell lines last spring, but hundreds of cell lines have remained locked away undergoing review. Now the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has finally deemed 13 embryonic lines ready for use, and could make a decision on 20 or more by Friday, the Associated Press reports. U.S. law still forbids the use of federal funding to create or destroy embryos, but the new stem cell lines all come from private fertility clinics. Such clinics typically make many leftover embryos that would normally end up being thrown away. Scientists have found that they can replicate such embryonic stem cells indefinitely in their labs, and can also turn them into any of more than 200 tissue types in the human body -- ideal platforms for...