Advanced Cell Technology is hoping that it has come up with a way to resolve the stormy impasse over embryonic stem cell research. In new research published in the British journal Nature, scientists for the company have taken an embryonic stem cell withdrawn for testing purposes and made a new stem cell line. The method for making a new line, which can be coaxed into developing into any type of human cell, may be enough to satisfy federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, Advanced Cell CEO William Caldwell, IV tells FierceBiotech. "We take that cell and divide it into two," says Caldwell. "One cell will be tested and the other will be used to develop a stem cell line. In that way we have not harmed the embryo."
The initial response hasn't been all positive, though. Others in the field quickly criticized its inefficiency compared to traditional methods that destroy the embryo. And critics like Glenn McGee, director of the Alden March Bioethics Institute in Albany, N.Y., reportedly said that few on either side of the debate were likely to be satisfied. President George W. Bush has severely restricted federal funding in the field, adamantly citing his unwillingness to destroy life in pursuit of science. He recently vetoed a bill by Congress that would have expanded federal funding in the field.
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