US President-elect Barack Obama is already considering a lift on the current restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, according to a member of Obama's transition team. Yesterday, John Podesta, one of the senior members of Obama's transition team and the previous chief of staff for Bill Clinton, told Fox News Sunday that the transition team is already considering lifting current linkurl:limits on stem cell research,;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53224/ and how Obama can lift several of the other restrictions that linkurl:President George W. Bush;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/daily/24892/ put in place during his administration. In 2001, Bush restricted federal funding for human embryonic stem cells to cell lines that had already been created before August 9, 2001. There are currently linkurl:21 lines;http://www.the-scientist.com/templates/trackable/display/blog.jsp?type=blog&o_url=blog/display/55053&id=55053 that qualify for federal funding. "I think across the board, on stem cell research, on a number of areas," Podesta said, "you see the Bush administration even today moving aggressively to do things that I think...
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