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Just one of many reasons why politics should be discussed on this list. News article posted Tue, Dec. 06, 2005 Labs unsure whether to join national stem cell bank MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Bush administration's plan for a bank of federally approved stem cells unveiled here two months ago is being met with apathy, confusion and derision. The bank is funded by a $16 million National Institutes of Health contract and is meant to be a clearinghouse for the 22 human embryonic stem cell lines available at disparate labs around the world. But even the bank's organizers acknowledge they may never have access to half of those lines because of distribution disagreements. Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco, for instance, say they prefer at the moment to maintain and distribute their own federally approved lines rather than deposit them in the bank maintained by WiCell Research Institute, a nonprofit organization connected to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ``My biggest concern is that there are choices in the world,'' said Renee Reijo Pera, who manages UCSF's two approved lines. Scientists in Israel, Sweden and Athens, Ga. -- who own the other stem cell lines not controlled by WiCell and its Singapore partner ES Cell International -- said they don't know about the bank's plans for quality control and distribution to participate now. ``We are in negotiations. No one has said that they aren't interested, but there's a lot of details to work out,'' WiCell spokesman Andy Cohn said. ``If they think for their business or for their interests it's better not to participate, it's their choice.'' Other researchers, though, say it doesn't matter how many approved stem cell lines are ultimately placed in the bank because superior stem cell lines are available from other sources who developed them without federal funds. At a minimum, Cohn said the bank's Web site will be a place where researchers can easily order cells at a fraction of the current cost and get reliable information on their DNA makeup. Derek Hei, a UW-Madison researcher who helped land the contract, said the 11 lines the bank already has represent the best quality of those available for federal funding. Many scientists believe stem cells hold the promise for treating and curing such diseases as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and eventually heralding a new era of regenerative medicine. But because human embryos are destroyed in the most popular process for creating the undifferentiated cells, religious conservatives tend to be opposed to creating new stem cells lines. In August 2001, President Bush announced on national television that the federal government would limit funding to research on all stem cell lines created by then. Today, those federally approved lines are viewed as antiquated and of inferior quality compared with those created after Bush's edict with private financing. One of the biggest problems with the federally approved stem cell lines is that mouse cells were used to keep them alive and are therefore unfit to be transplanted into people. So most researchers want to work with newer stem cell lines like those created at Harvard University without mouse cells. ``If the current federal limitations stay in place, then the concept of a centralized stem cell bank is never going to fly,'' said Sean Tipton, spokesman for the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, a coalition of patient and research groups. ``Who wants access to suboptimal lines even if they are in one place?'' http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/business/industries/13339327.htm ------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn