Popular hESC line approved

The National Institutes of Health is set to announce the approval of four human embryonic stem cell lines that were eligible for federal funding under former US President George W. Bush, but originally deemed ineligible under new rules from the current administration. Human embryonic stem cellsImage: Wikimedia commons, Nissim BenvenistyOne of these lines includes the most widely used line of human embryonic stem cells, H9. With only one Bush-approved line already on the new NIH registry, this

Written byJef Akst

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Human embryonic stem cells
Image: Wikimedia commons,
Nissim Benvenisty

One of these lines includes the most widely used line of human embryonic stem cells, H9. With only one Bush-approved line already on the new NIH registry, this marks a step in the right direction for the stem cell research community. "Re-approval of these cell lines will jump start stalled research and clinical development projects that have been on hold since July, 2009," when the new rules from President Barack Obama took effect, Erik Forsberg, executive director of the linkurl:WiCell Research Institute;http://www.wicell.org/ in Madison, Wisconsin, which applied for the approval, told The Scientist in an email. While the new rules opened the door for newly derived lines to be approved for federal funding, they did not "grandfather" existing eligible lines, meaning that all the Bush-approved lines had to be resubmitted for approval under the new NIH guidelines. Together with H1 (the only already-approved Bush line), H9 has dominated the field for more than 10 years, linkurl:according to a survey;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55885/ published in the August issue of Nature Biotechnology. "Many people who had been working on these lines, and concerned about whether they would be able to continue to work with these lines, will now be reassured that their research can now go forward," NIH Director Francis Collins linkurl:told The Washington Post.;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042703360.html Editor's note: Since the publication of this story, the four human embryonic stem cell lines from the WiCell Research Institute have been added to the linkurl:NIH stem cell registry,;http://grants.nih.gov/stem_cells/registry/current.htm?sort=dtd as well as nine additional lines from the University of California, Los Angeles, Harvard University, and Stanford University.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:27 more hESC lines approved;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56219/
[15th December 2009]*linkurl:NIH OKs 13 stem cell lines;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56196/
[2nd December 2009]*linkurl:Two stem cell lines lead studies;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55885/
[12th August 2009]

Meet the Author

Jef Akst

Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

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