The chairman of International Stem Cell Corp. (ISCO) in Oceanside, California, says he does not expect the order on Monday of a judge blocking federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to have negative effects on the company’s therapeutic programs. Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a temporary injunction on Monday blocking the U.S. government from implementing guidelines from the National Institutes of Health on research involving human embryonic stem cells.
Ken Aldrich, ISCO’s chairman, says in a statement “Because we have never depended on federal or state money to fund our research, the new ruling is simply not applicable to any of our programs in the U.S. or any of our international efforts.” Aldrich adds, “we believe anything that restricts legitimate scientific research is detrimental to science and our country and hope the ruling is quickly reversed ….”
ISCO says its technology, parthenogenesis, results in creation of pluripotent human stem cells from unfertilized eggs. These cells thus avoid ethical issues associated with use or destruction of viable human embryos.
Related: