Grants for Stem Cell Research Favor Ethical Approaches

Eugene C. Tarne | October 10, 2016

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) has awarded two rounds of grants since the Charlotte Lozier Institute last analyzed the Fund’s pattern of grant making for stem cell research, in the fall of 2013. That study found that since MSCRF first began awarding grants in 2007, its pattern of giving shifted over the years from strongly favoring projects focusing on ethically contentious human embryonic stem cell research (hESCR) to projects focusing on ethically non-contentious adult stem cells and other non-embryonic stem cell research.

iPSCs: A New Gold Standard in Regenerative Medicine?

Eugene C. Tarne | July 28, 2016

A recent press release from the National Institutes of Health calls attention to a study, published in Stem Cell Reports, that researchers have “developed a clinical-grade stem cell line, which has the potential to accelerate the advance of new medical applications and cell-based therapies for millions of people suffering from such ailments as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, diabetes, and muscular dystrophy.” The development of these clinical grade stem cells, the release notes, “removes a significant barrier in the development of cell-based therapies.” But is NIH’s promotion of “stem cells” anything new?