Stem cell, conflict policies driving talent from NIH

Senior NIH staff told Congress Wednesday that restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research are driving scientists to California, and conflict of interest regulations are prompting NIH officials to leave government service. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, told the Senate Appropriations Labor HHS and Education Subcommittee that the Bush administration's stem cell rules have "delayed progress" and caused NIH to "cede leadership in the field" to California. Three other NIH institute directors complained that the limited number of stem cell lines available to federally funded researchers has hampered scientific progress.

"It is likely that there will be a movement of some of the best stem cell biologists to California as a result of Proposition 71," said James Battey, director of the National Institute on Deafness Disorders. ...