National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins is "stunned" by the federal district judge's decision to deny federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, and the Justice Department plans to appeal the ruling.
Yesterday (August 24), Collins lamented to reporters about the more than $50 million in grants that had to be denied their annual renewals. "This very unexpected development" has dire consequences for both research projects already underway, as well as countless others that have yet to begin, said Collins. "Frankly, I was stunned, as was virtually everyone here at NIH, by the judicial decision yesterday," he said. "This decision has the potential to do serious damage to one of the most promising areas of biomedical research, and just at the time when we were really gaining momentum." The judge ruled that because hESC research is only possible after...
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Image: Wikimedia commons, Nissim Benvenisty |
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