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.

Human embryonic stem cells Image: Wikimedia commons, Nissim Benvenisty

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 the destruction of embryos, any research involving these cell lines "is precluded from receiving federal funding." In addition to overturning President Barack Obama's 2009 executive order to expand those hESC lines eligible for federal funding, the ruling may negate the possibility of funding for even those lines allowed under former President George W. Bush.

Yesterday, the US Department of Justice said it would appeal the ruling.

In addition to the long list of diseases that hESCs have shown promise in treating, hESC research holds great potential in the area of drug development, Collins said. With regard to the NIH in particular, 50 grant proposals in the queue for peer review have been pulled from consideration because they involve hESC research, and $15-20 million worth of proposals that have passed the first stage of peer review with high scores and are awaiting counsel review have also been pulled. Finally, the injunction places a freeze on the annual renewal of another 22 grants totaling $54 million supporting "projects that are already well underway," Collins explained. Grants that have already been paid, which total $131 million this year alone, are permitted to continue -- until they come up for annual renewal next year, that is.

"If this decision stands," Collins said, "very promising research on human diseases on which we need new insights and new options will not get done. Screening for new drugs using hESCs, a very promising way to discover new compounds, will stop. Researchers, who have been so energized by the opportunities made available over the last year, will likely grow discouraged, maybe move on to other countries or other fields of research. We will lose the momentum."

He continued: "This is one of the most exciting areas of the broad array of engines of discovery that NIH supports. This decision has just poured sand into that engine of discovery."


Related stories:

NIH OKs 13 stem cell lines
[2nd December 2009]

NIH loosens stem cell consent rules
[6th July 2009]

Obama to lift stem cell ban
]6th March 2009]