As President Barack Obama lifts eight-year-old restrictions that have kept scores of researchers from receiving federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research, some life science entrepreneurs are readying for an uptick in business. Michael West, CEO of California based biotech linkurl:BioTime,;http://www.biotimeinc.com/ told __The Scientist__ that he's been preparing for Obama's announcement for the past year. Knowing that the next US president would likely overturn the 2001 Bush ban on government funding of embryonic stem cell research, West began amassing embryonic progenitor cell lines made from stem cell lines not eligible for federal funding under the older executive order. "Our focus in the near-term is selling into the stem cell research product market," West said, adding that his company hopes to provide university and industry labs with primitive neural crest, mesodermal, neural and glial cell lines developed from stem cell lines originating at a Chicago fertility clinic. "We're in the process...
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