The National Institutes of Health is now accepting applications for grants in embryonic stem cell research after unveiling its Web-based Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry (http://escr.nih.gov/). About a handful of applications have been received so far; the first awards should be announced in early 2002. This registry lists names and contact information for 11 worldwide organizations offering 72 cell lines that meet the federal funding requirements outlined by President George W. Bush in August. The listed cell lines, however, are in varying developmental stages and not all are available. For instance, only one of five cell lines offered by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin, is listed as ready for distribution. Meanwhile, US senators agreed to postpone debate on two contentious life science issues: expanding stem cell funding to include research on embryo creation; and banning certain cloning technologies. Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) agreed to withhold amendments to the appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services in order to speed this funding legislation through. Hearings on these topics will be held over the next few months. Leon Kass, appointed to lead Bush's new bioethics council, doubtless will be invited to testify. Wendy Baldwin, deputy NIH director for extramural research, said in Senate testimony that researchers receiving NIH funding for projects in related areas may seek supplemental funds or permission to use existing funds.
NSF Awards Grant for Worldwide Virtual Data Lab
The National Science Foundation recently awarded $13.65 million to a consortium of 15 universities to construct the International Virtual Data Grid Laboratory (iVDGL). A worldwide network of thousands of computers will comprise the iVDGL and act as a distributed supercomputer allowing researchers to access computing resources. Software developed by the Grid Physics Network will allow grid users to access and process globally distributed data. Robert Gardner, associate professor of physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, says the network "will not only give access to software but even the storage capacity from other computers ... any one discipline which has a large amount of data will be a benefactor of the grid infrastructure." The network will be able to handle petabytes of data, which is about the amount of information contained in 100,000 personal computers. Putting the grid in place is expected to be a five-year project. Gardner, whose university is a consortium member, foresees other collaborative grids emerging for science as well as for commercial applications. In data-intensive fields such as genomics, a large amount of data and a lack of computer resources can often be an obstacle to progress.
