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Stanford Report, April 12, 2006 U.S. trails other countries in embryonic stem cell studies BY AMY ADAMS The fear that U.S. researchers might lose ground to their international counterparts in carrying out human embryonic stem cell research now appears to have become a fact. A study by a researcher at the School of Medicine for the first time documents that stem cell researchers in other countries are out-publishing U.S. scientists. "There is a gap between publications from U.S. and non-U.S. groups," said Jennifer McCormick, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. "With the current trajectory, if things don't change, that gap is going to continue." McCormick collaborated on the study with her colleague Jason Owen-Smith, PhD, assistant professor of sociology and organizational studies at the University of Michigan. The paper is published in the April issue of Nature Biotechnology. The concerns about the U.S. role in embryonic stem cell research have their roots in President Bush's August 2001 announcement that federal grants could only fund research using existing embryonic stem cell lines. Any research using stem cell lines created after that announcement, or research intended to create much-needed new lines, must be paid for with nonfederal funds. Other countries have taken a patchwork approach to regulating this field, with the United Kingdom and South Korea specifically encouraging embryonic stem cell research. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn