Stanford University in California, US, has announced that it intends to clone human embryos in order to produce embryonic stem cells for research into disease and injury. This is the first time an American university has publicly endorsed the procedure.
The cloning work will be part of a new Institute for Cancer, Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at the university, set up following an anonymous donation of $12 million. Stem cells created at the Institute will be able to be accessed by researchers from outside of the university. Federal funding for stem cell research was limited by President Bush last year to stem cell lines created before 9 August 2001. But many researchers have claimed that access to these existing lines is inadequate and not all the lines are of the right quality.
Dr Irving Weissman, who testified in favour of stem cell research and therapeutic cloning to the US Senate earlier this year, has been named director of the Institute. Commenting on the Stanford plan he said 'our avowed goal is to advance science. For any group to stay out of the action and wait for someone else to do it because of political reasons is wrong'. He added that he intends to recruit the top cloning researchers to Stanford and wants 'to put them on notice that we are after them'.
Sources and References
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Stanford plans controversial stem cell work
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Stanford plans stem-cell institute - center will also focus on related cancer research
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Stanford to create institute for embryonic stem cell research
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Stanford to develop human stem cells
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