11 Mar Expanded embryonic stem cell research's effect on Wisconsin
President Barack Obama is ending former President George W. Bush’s limits on using federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could bring Wisconsin even more into the forefront in the area.
Obama was to sign an executive order on stem cells and memo on science Monday in an East Room ceremony.
“These are approval for cell lines that have been created since the Bush policy went into place in August of 2001,” explained UW Director of Research Communications Terry Devitt on 620WTMJ’s “Wisconsin’s Morning News.”
Devitt says that for the University of Wisconsin, and for the state in general, Obama’s executive order means a lot.
“This is obviously a very important move,” explains Devitt.
“It’s certainly very important for Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a leader in embryonic stem cell research. The first cell lines were created in 1998 in the laboratory of Dr. James Thompson on the UW-Madison campus.
“Wisconsin is a leader in this area. This is an incredibly promising area of research. It holds the potential to revolutionize transplant medicine. In four to five years, most of us will be walking around with drugs in us that have been tested on these cells, and it’s going to open a very important window on the earliest stages of human development to the time of life when many things go wrong.”
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