Washington

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) could provide funding for research on human embryonic stem cells as early as the spring if new guidelines, published by the NIH last week after widespread public consultation, are formally approved.

The guidelines try to distinguish between the derivation of the cells from embryos, which the US government is forbidden by Congress from funding, and research on the cells once they have been isolated, which can be funded (see Nature 397, 185; 1999). Under the proposed rules, stem cells can be taken only from spare frozen embryos after the conclusion of in vitro fertilization attempts.

“This is a way to ensure a separation between the creation of the embryo and the decision to donate to research,” says Lana Skirboll, director of science policy at the NIH. Physicians involved with in vitro fertilization will not be eligible for NIH funds for research on cells they derive themselves.

The rules are “quite reasonable”, according to James Thomson, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who, with private funding, first cultured pluripotent cells from embryos last November.

But the proposed informed-consent form may be sufficiently different from the one used by Thomson that it may not allow his cells to be used, he says. If necessary, his laboratory will culture another stem-cell line under the new guidelines. The guidelines are available at http://www.nih.gov/news/stemcell/draftguidelines.htm.