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Eligibility Criteria for NIH Funding of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

On August 9, 2001, at 9:00 p.m. EDT, President George W. Bush announced his decision to allow Federal funds to be used for research on existing human embryonic stem cell lines as long as prior to his announcement (1) the derivation process (which commences with the removal of the inner cell mass from the blastocyst) had already been initiated and (2) the embryo from which the stem cell line was derived no longer had the possibility of development as a human being.

In addition, President Bush established the following criteria that must be met:

  • The stem cells must have been derived from an embryo that was created for reproductive purposes;
  • The embryo was no longer needed for these purposes;
  • Informed consent must have been obtained for the donation of the embryo;
  • No financial inducements were provided for donation of the embryo.

In order to facilitate research using human embryonic stem cells, the NIH created the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry, which lists the human embryonic stem cell lines—at varying stages of development—that meet the eligibility criteria. Listed below are entities that have developed stem cell lines that meet President Bush's criteria and are therefore eligible for federal funding. Please click on the name of the laboratory or company for contact information.

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Name Derivations Available Lines
BresaGen, Inc., Athens, Georgia
* The cells in line BG04/hESBGN-04 failed to expand into undifferentiated cell cultures.		 4 3*
Cell & Gene Therapy Research Institute (Pochon CHA University), Seoul, Korea 2
Cellartis AB, Göteborg, Sweden
* Cell line SA03/Sahlgrenska 3 withdrawn by donor.		 3 2*
CyThera, Inc., San Diego, California
* The cells failed to expand into undifferentiated cell cultures.		 9 0*
ES Cell International Pte Ld, Singapore 6 6
Geron Corporation, Menlo Park, California 7
Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden 16
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
* The cells failed to expand into undifferentiated cell cultures.		 6 0*
Maria Biotech Co. Ltd. – Maria Infertility Hospital Medical Institute, Seoul, Korea 3
MizMedi Hospital—Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
* Cell line no longer eligible for federal funding.		 1 0*
National Centre for Biological Sciences/Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore, India 3
Reliance Life Sciences, Mumbai, India 7
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel 4 3
University of California, San Francisco, California 2 2
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Madison, Wisconsin 5 5