Orrin Hatch: “this letter describes groundbreaking research conducted by a Johns Hopkins scientist, Dr. Douglas Kerr, on how mouse…”

“this letter describes groundbreaking research conducted by a Johns Hopkins scientist, Dr. Douglas Kerr, on how mouse embryonic stem cells have been able to regenerate damaged nerve tissue in paralyzed rats. According to the letter from Johns Hopkins University, one of the world's most respected biomedical research institutions in the world, Dr. Kerr's ``breakthrough represents the first time that scientists have actually re-grown damaged components of a nervous system, and it could lead to human therapies that seemed previously to be beyond our reach. Treatments not only for paralysis, but for ALS, multiple sclerosis, and similar diseases of the brain now seem possible.'' The current Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, has said that this research is ``a remarkable advance that can help us understand how stem cells can begin to fulfill their great promise.'' However, unless H.R. 810 becomes law and the number of stem cells lines eligible for Federal funding is expanded, this promising research could die on the vine. As Mr. Armstrong explains in his letter: The level of funding that will that will ultimately be required to advance this field of science to human clinical trials, however, suggests that federal funding will be necessary. Yet, under current federal policy, the only stem cell lines eligible for federal funding were created using mouse feeder cells and could never be used in clinical trials with humans.…”