Wired News reports that:
The
leader of the stem-cell unit at the National Institute on Aging, part of
the National Institutes of Health, announced today he will leave the NIH
to join the private sector at a biotech company called Invitrogen in
Carlsbad, California.Dr. Mahendra Rao says the president’s executive order that embryonic
stem-cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001 are not eligible for federal
funding, is the reason behind his decision to leave the government
agency. He spoke to Wired News…Wired News: What made you leave the National Institute on Aging to join
Invitrogen?Rao: In a nutshell, it was because of opportunity. The stem-cell
program at Invitrogen is quite international in scope, and the
regulations on stem-cell work in the United States, particularly for
government employees, are more constrictive than I would have liked.WN: Can you talk about the restrictions that you faced while working at
the National Institutes of Health?Rao: The biggest issue was the policy decision — I work primarily on
embryonic research and the big issue was that we could work only on a
limited number of lines that had been derived before Aug. 9, 2001. The
number of available lines is quite small and I felt we needed to be
working on a larger number of lines — at least on lines that carried
certain characteristics that were derived subsequent to that deadline.
And this is the guy the Bush people wanted.
-thanks Art Caplan