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SOURCE Wall Street Journal By GAUTAM NAIK

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Blindsided by a court ruling blocking federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells, the U.S. government plans to freeze all new grants for scientists and impose other restrictions on this burgeoning area of science.

The National Institutes of Health said it has abandoned its planned review of 50 new grant applications, and will not proceed with a second-level review of about a dozen applications valued at $15 million to $20 million. Also frozen is a planned review in September of another 22 grant applications totaling $54 million.

The preliminary injunction against federal funding for the research was issued on Monday by Judge Royce Lamberth of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The judge said that federal funding violated a 1996 law prohibiting federal money for research in which an embryo was destroyed.

Embryonic stem cells, the size of a pencil dot, have long been both controversial and promising. Cells taken from embryos are special because they can turn into all the cells of the body. Researchers hope one day to convert these master cells into specific tissue types and treat an array of ailments, from spinal injuries and diabetes to Parkinson's disease, as well as to screen for new drugs.

Opponents maintain that such research, which leads to the destruction of the embryo, is tantamount to taking a life, and have opposed such experiments on ethical grounds.

The ruling represents a dramatic setback for stem-cell science in the U.S. In March 2009, President Barack Obama expanded federal funding of human embryo research, launching dozens of new stem-cell projects across the country. Since then, the U.S. National Institutes of Health has approved 75 new stem cell lines. The ruling could even make research on lines approved under President George W. Bush ineligible for federal funding.

The judge's ruling "potentially places all this in jeopardy," said Francis Collins, director of the NIH, in a conference call Tuesday with reporters. "It has the potential to do serious damage just at a time we were gaining momentum" in stem cell research.

However, scientists have already received some $131 million in grants to pursue the research in the current fiscal year and can continue to use the money until it runs out, the NIH said.

Dr. Collins and other scientists said the judicial ruling, provided it stands, could....


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