Has change come to biology?

President Obama's promise to restore science to its rightful place has raised the hopes of biologists that there will be swift action on what many view as a serious hindrance to biology: restrictions on the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Federal funding of hESC research has been limited to lines created before August 9th, 2001—nearly nine years ago—and most of the acceptable lines have since been found to be inappropriate for clinical research; ethical issues involving informed consent affect the remaining handful. On Tuesday, the New York Stem Cell foundation hosted a panel that discussed how a lifting of the Bush-era restrictions on hESC research is likely to change hESC research.

The panel included two members that had been part of the Obama transition team: Alta Charo, who focuses on bioethics at the University of Wisconsin Law School, and Nobel Laureate Harold Varmus of Sloan-Kettering, who is now serving on Obama's Science and Technology advisory panel. Lawrence Tabak of the NIH provided some perspective on what his agency would need to do, and Harvard's Kevin Eggan spoke as...