Researchers At Columbia University Medical Center Hail Court's Decision On Stem Cell Research
March 19, 2017
Commenting on yesterday's ruling in favor of the Obama administration's continued funding of embryonic stem cell research, Lee Goldman, MD, Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, and Executive Vice President, Columbia University, said:
"We are grateful that the court has correctly rejected this attempt to inject politics into science. Stem cell research offers some of the most promising possibilities to treat and eventually cure major diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease and to gain important insights into everything from human development to the biological processes that lead to cancer and other diseases. I am pleased that researchers here at Columbia University Medical Center and around the world can proceed with this important scientific work."
Christopher Henderson, PhD, professor of pathology, neurology and neuroscience, co-director of the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease at Columbia, and senior scientific advisor to the Project A.L.S./ Jenifer Estess Laboratory for Stem Cell Research, said:
"The federal court's decision is great news for Columbia stem cell researchers and for the community at large. Even though multiple alternative sources of human stem cells are being evaluated, real progress can be made only by allowing objective comparisons between these and the "gold-standard" embryonic stem cells. Given the immense potential of stem cell research for human health, we hope that funding by the National Institutes of Health in this area will expand to allow support of top-level research using all available models."
Source: Columbia University Medical Center