Front Page

TIP TROVE | Ethics and the Scientist Courtesy of Michael Kalichman Because research is a social enterprise and is intended to provide a public benefit, the conduct of research is riddled with competing interests. Resolution of such interests requires that a researcher be aware of the ethical dimensions of research; seek out the necessary information and resources to address such concerns as they arise; apply his or her critical thinking skills to find courses of action that are ethically defensible; and carry out such actions despite pressures to do otherwise. These steps should not be foreign to most scientists, because they are analogous to the process of scientific discovery. Both the conduct of science and ethics are best defined not by a particular endpoint but by a process. The good news is that considerations of long-term interests can often yield options that are at the same time ethically defensible and practically beneficial. --Michael Kalichman is director of the Research Ethics Program at the University of California, San Diego. TRAINING @ | Chemical Acumen WHAT: Element-Selective Detection for Chromatography and Electrophoresis by ICP-Mass Spectrometry WHERE: Hotel Novotel Centrum, Bruges, Belgium WHY: Short course for specialists in separations who wish to use ICP- (inductively coupled plasma) MS to measure, for example, phosphorylation of proteins or metalloproteins WHEN: Feb. 3, 2004 DEADLINE: Dec. 15 (last-minute registration) COST: ¤350 if registered before Dec. 1; ¤400 after Dec.1 CONTACT: Robert Smits, president, Royal Flemish Chemical Society, at robert.smits@kvcv.be URL: www.ordibo.be/htc/index.html FUNDING FORUM | All That Stem Cell Money and Nobody to Spend It D.F. Dowd Whatever happened to the $100 million in US federal grants promised for research on human embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines?1 In fiscal 2002, the National Institutes of Health awarded only $11 million for research grants that met funding criteria established by the Bush administration. This year NIH is projected to invest around $17 million. "We have put no limit on the amount of funds available," says James Battey, chairman of the NIH Stem Cell Task Force. "If we had gotten twice as many applications, that number could have been twice as big." The problem is a shortage of investigators trained in culturing and handling these often finicky cell lines, and limitations on the part of providers to produce and distribute human ESCs to the research community, Battey says. To jump-start research, NIH last year began offering infrastructure awards and training grants. Those efforts are increasing: as of last January, NIH had awarded about a dozen research grants, and today that number has grown to 25. Supplemental administrative awards to existing grants have more than doubled from 30 to 66. NIH also offers five training courses to teach researchers how to culture and handle human ESCs and has granted eight infrastructure awards to existing suppliers. For Fiscal Year 2004, which began Oct. 1, NIH will continue to fund meritorious human ESC research projects. NIH has awarded $6.3 million in grants to three academic centers--University of Washington/Seattle, University of Michigan/Ann Arbor, and WiCell Research Institute in Madison, Wisc.--to develop better methods to culture and handle human ESCs. "I see no indication that a dollar limit will be placed on NIH's investment in this important area of research," Battey says. "We are limited only by receipt of investigator-initiated research grant applications that pass the mettle of peer review". But the real reason for the shortage is the Bush administration's policy on human ESCs that restricts funding to a limited number of cell lines derived prior to Aug. 9, 2001, says Sean Tipton, vice president of communications for the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, an advocacy group in Washington, DC. Restrictions on the number of cell lines coupled with insecurity over continued funding has made researchers shy away from this field, he says. "It's clear the president's policy has a chilling effect that goes well beyond the literal restriction of the policy. We have to place a fair amount of responsibility for that right back on the president." --Ted Agres 1. T. Agres, "Stepping up for stem cells," The Scientist, 15[17]:1, Sept. 3, 2001. function sendData() { document.frm.pathName.value = location.pathname; result = false if (document.frm.score[0].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[1].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[2].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[3].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[4].checked) result = true; if (!result) alert("Please select") return result; } .myradio{background-color : #94bee5} Please indicate on a 1 - 5 scale how strongly you would recommend this article to your colleagues? Not recommended 1 2 3 4 5 Highly recommended Please register your vote

Front Page

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of