House Approves Stem Cell Bill

The prospect for acquiring national funding to support Harvard’s commitment to stem cell research grew better on Tuesday when the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of legislation loosening current research restrictions on embryonic stem cells.

The bill, favored 238-194, could amend the 2001 law signed by incumbent president George W. Bush, which only allows federal funding for research that uses embryonic stem cell lines established before August 2001.

With the new bill, legislators hope to expand national funding to include research involving all embryonic stem cells regardless of the date of creation.

The proposed legislation, however, will only allow federal funding for stem cells that are derived from excess embryos from in-vitro ferility clinics. If the new legislation passes, research will be subject to National Institutes of Health guidelines—likely to mirror a set of recommendations released by the National Academy of Sciences last month.

According to Dr. Charles G. Jennings, executive director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, this first demonstration of national approval for embryonic stem cell research since 2001 reflects the continued therapeutic promise of stem cell science.

“There are over an estimated 100 million people with chronic diseases in the United States...and stem cell research still has tremendous potential,” he said. “That’s front and center, and other people are becoming more aware of this fact.”

Although the majority of the House supported the research initiative, the bill still lacks the two-thirds majority necessary to override an expected veto from Bush.

“The Congress has made its position clear, and I’ve made my position clear,” Bush said on Tuesday. “I will be vetoing the bill they send to me if it were to pass the United States Senate.”

And many expect that the Senate will approve the bill with a margin large enough to overrule Bush’s expected veto—which would be the first veto ever in his presidency.

“I don’t like veto threats, and I don’t like statements about overriding veto threats,” said the Senate’s chief sponsor of the bill, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., at a news conference. “I think if it really comes down to a showdown, we will have enough in the United States Senate to override a veto.”

Jennings said that many people who are initially undecided about stem cell research tend to support it after learning more about its ramifications. He pointed to individual states’ efforts to legalize stem cell research as an example of the trend toward increasing public support.

“Many states are not pleased with the current administration’s decisions and are taking things into their own hands,” he said. “It has become evident with the stem cell advancements announced in South Korea that whatever the U.S. does, this research will occur elsewhere.”

South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk revealed to the world last week that he had improved upon existing methodology to create embryonic stem cell lines tailored to individual patients, bringing the goal of individual stem cell therapy one step closer to fruition.

The triumph in the national legislature for Harvard stem cell scientists follows the unexpected departure of Stefan Heller, an investigator at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary who announced this Monday he would leave for Stanford University.

Jennings said that this move was more a part of normal “academic mobility,” and “not the beginning of a mass exodus.”

“We are sorry anytime anyone leaves from Harvard to Stanford, but prominent researchers move all the time,” he said. “We wish him well at Stanford, and we certainly want to maintain collaborations.”

Earlier this year, Harvard lured Kenneth R. Chien ’73 back to the East coast. Chien, who works on adult stem cells, joined the Harvard faculty from the University of California at San Diego.

—Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.

—Staff writer RIsheng Xu can be reached at xu4@fas.harvard.edu.