Stem cell scholars at UCSD are applauding President Barack Obama's lifting of restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell studies.
After nearly eight years of frustration due to having to circumvent the Bush administration rules by way of state funding or private study grants, "now we can be a little bit more open with the research," says Karl Willert, Ph.D, who is the director of UCSD'S Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core facility.
"We can do it in many different locations, many different labs," Willert said in an interview Monday. "The equipment we acquire to do the research doesn't need to be in one particular location."
Willert said the move will accelerate understanding of basic biology, cell replacement therapy, drug testing and development and disease "modeling."
Graduate students involved in the university's stem-cell programs are welcoming an end to rules against using equipment acquired with federal funding for research that was limited to the 21 stem-cell lines approved by the Bush administration.
"It [the Obama order] just opens so many more doors," said Katherine Ruby, a graduate student in UCSD'S Department of Neuroscience. "Now we can do everything, and we don't have to worry about, 'is that allowed -- is that not allowed'?"
Zoe Vomberg, a staff research associate with the Stem Cell Core Facility, said unfettered state funding of stem-cell research has "allowed California to become a leader, along with people at Harvard and MIT, and so forth."
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Going forward, UCSD scientists expect a speed-up in the process of developing new treatments and therapies, after eight years of seeing breakthroughs outside the United States.
"The longer-term benefits are in growing the economy, trying to get great new companies and new jobs, and helping people with diseases that we can't help at this point," Willert said.
