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FROM CAMR website: http://www.camradvocacy.org/fastaction/news.asp?id=629 "Senate stem cell references in the Senate report accompanying the FY 2004 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill" Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research- The Committee believes strongly that embryonic stem cell research offers enormous promise for the more than 100 million Americans who suffer from chronic diseases. The Committee remains concerned that the current administration policy relating to embryonic stem cell research is too limiting and is significantly slowing the pace of this research. While the administration initially stated that approximately 70 embryonic stem cell lines would be available under the President's policy, only 11 are currently available. Moreover, the Committee has heard testimony that current embryonic stem cell lines are not sufficiently genetically diverse for therapeutic uses. Also, most all of the currently available stem cell lines are contaminated with mouse feeder cells, making it uncertain whether the FDA will permit them to be used in therapeutic applications. The Committee urges the administration to expand its embryonic stem cell research policy to allow additional stem cell lines to be available for research. The Committee is also deeply concerned with the slow pace of implementation of the current policy. The Committee was informed by NIH this year that NIH anticipates spending just $17,000,000 on human embryonic stem cell research, far short of the $100,000,000 budget originally announced by the HHS Secretary. The Committee was particularly troubled to learn that the National Cancer Institute is projecting no funding for human ES cell research in fiscal year 2003. Over the past several years, the Committee has heard from multiple witnesses, including former NIH and NCI directors, about the promise of human ES cell research to better understand and treat cancer. The Committee expects to hear from NCI during the fiscal year 2005 hearings on their plan to vigorously implement a human ES agenda. " ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research 2120 L Street, Suite 850 Washington, DC 20037 AND FROM: Health - Reuters Official Says Stem Cells Produced 'Neurons' Mon Jun 30, 5:32 PM ET By Todd Zwillich "WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - National Institutes of Health researchers have transformed human embryonic stem cells into cells that function like those lost in patients with Parkinson's disease , an official said Monday. The official told an NIH panel that the research, which has yet to be published, has produced cells resembling human neurons "in every way." "There has been some rather notable progress made," Dr. James Battey, chair of NIH's stem cell research task force, told members of an advisory panel to NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni. It is still too early to tell whether the cells will be able to function normally if implanted into a patient's brain, Battey said in a later interview. But so far the cells "look great in the lab." Battey told the panel that an NIH research team led by Dr. Ronald D.G. McKay used a five-step process to transform human embryonic stem cells into cells that can produce dopamine, the neurochemical lost in patients with Parkinson's disease. The cells are able to fire the electrical impulses, or action potentials, that normal cells use to communicate with one another, he said. "These are cells that resemble in every way a dopamine-producing mid-brain cell," said Battey, who also directs NIH's Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD). McKay, who is chief of laboratory and molecular biology at the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, did not respond to a request for an interview. But Battey told NIH officials and advisors that the finding shows that basic research is moving forward under a controversial two-year-old White House directive that limited federal funding for embryonic stem research. The decision, issued by President Bush (news - web sites) on Aug 9, 2001, confined federal funding to embryonic stem cell "lines" that had already been derived by the time of the announcement. "Many of the studies that are begging to be done can be done right now," Battey said Bush suggested at the time that the limits would prevent public money from being used to destroy human embryos in order to harvest their stem cells. The decision was controversial, with some scientists and research advocates worrying that the limits would stifle the basic research needed to find new disease cures. Dr. J. Michael Bishop, an advisory board member and chancellor of the University of California at San Francisco, warned that the limits will keep scientists from working with immunologically diverse cells that will be needed for human implantation. ""We can't keep our head in the sand about the need to develop additional lines," he said. "I just don't want anyone to leave this room thinking that the difficulties ... can be discounted." Former Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., a member of the advisory panel, questioned whether the 71 separate groups of embryos eligible for government-funded research under the rules are enough for long-term research. Only 12 stem cell lines from the 71 separate groups are currently available for researchers to use. Battey said that McKay's finding, along with another that isolated a chemical factor allowing stem cells to freely differentiate into many cell types, showed that basic research is advancing even with limits set by Bush. However, he also cautioned that the usefulness of the lines for later clinical research "remains a huge question mark." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn