Varmus presses ahead on stem cells

WASHINGTON - NIH Director Harold Varmus last week confirmed he has asked government attorneys to determine whether federal funds can be allocated to conduct certain types of embryonic stem cell research.

Varmus said the congressional ban on federally funded human embryo research would have precluded NIH support for research conducted at the University of Wisconsin for Geron Corp. (GERN, Menlo Park, Calif.) because it used cells derived from embryos created by in vitro fertilization...