Linda Thank you for that article it does provide hope. Sincerely Chris At 11:19 PM 5/26/2004 -0400, you wrote: >FROM: The Boston Globe >May 23, 2004, Sunday ,THIRD EDITION > >HEADLINE: 94 NEW CELL LINES CREATED ABROAD SINCE BUSH DECISION > > BY GARETH COOK > > In its survey of laboratories around the world, the Globe found 128 >lines of >human embryonic stem cells created since Aug. 9, 2001, the day new cell >lines >became ineligible for federal research money. > > Of those cell lines, 94 were created abroad, and 34 were created in >the >United States. Under current policy, all of these new cell lines are >off-limits >to US laboratories that receive federal funding. > > > Fifty-one of these new lines are available to researchers >today. >There are several reasons the other lines are not yet available for >research. > > When biologists first derive a line of embryonic stem cells, they must >carefully study it a process called characterization and also grow it >long >enough to be sure the cells are viable. In the Czech lab of Petr Dvorak, >for >example, there are three lines that are well-characterized and have been >growing >for a year. The lab has derived another four lines, but those have not >been >studied well enough for Dvorak to be confident they could be used by >other >research teams. And one line that initially looked promising died, a >common >experience with very young lines. > > There can also be legal issues. In the United Kingdom, for example, >the >survey found five well-characterized lines, but these cannot be shipped >abroad >until the newly opened UK Stem Cell Bank has processed them. > > There are also lines in other countries, such as Japan, where >researchers >are not allowed to ship the cells abroad. These lines were not included >in the >survey, because it is not clear whether they will ever be available to >researchers here. > > Of the 128 lines found in the Globe survey, then, many are likely >to >become available to researchers in the United States though only if those >researchers raise private money and build separate laboratories. > > Currently there is no organization that systematically tracks all of >the >world's human embryonic stem cell lines, meaning that even specialists do >not >have a clear picture of the state of the field. > > Peter Andrews, a professor at University of Sheffield in Great >Britain, is >currently heading an effort to catalog and systematically characterize >all of >the world's embryonic stem cell lines, as part of an organization called >the >International Stem Cell Forum. > > He hopes to have an initial set of results by the end of the year, he >said. > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] >In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn