President Barack Obama will lift restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research on Monday.

The Washington Post reports that Obama will announce the executive order at 11:00 AM (EDT), citing unnamed "sources close to the issue."

Researchers and science advocates have been anticipating the announcement ever since Obama took office earlier this year. The loosening of government purse strings could prompt the National Institutes of Health to consider stem cell research proposals that were unfundable under the restrictions ushered in by President George W. Bush in 2001.


Related stories:

Bush's stem cell ban to end?
[30th January 2009]

Obama to lift stem cell ban?
[10th November 2008]

Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding
[2nd September 2008]