Concerns about the availability and usefulness of existing embryonic stem cell lines continue to surface in the wake of President George W. Bush's decision to allow limited federal support of the research.

An NIH spokesman says the agency has begun meeting with all the holders of derived cell lines to get details on them and discuss their availability. The purpose is to prepare a complete registry of the cell lines. How soon this important information will be available is unknown, the spokesman says.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), which holds a primary patent on production of human embryonic stem cells, is one of the institutions negotiating with NIH (see page 6). WARF has given an exclusive license to some stem cell lines to Geron Corp., Menlo Park, Calif.

Geron provided much of the financial support for the University of Wisconsin researcher, James Thomson, who developed the stem cell lines. WARF awarded the company commercialization rights for six cell lines: hepatocytes, myocytes, neural cells, pancreatic islet cells, hematopoietic cells, and osteoblasts. Geron says it has the rights to other WARF stem cell lines as well.

However, the university recently filed a lawsuit against Geron seeking to preserve what it says are its rights to license other cell lines to other entities. WARF and Geron expect to resolve the licensing issue in the near future.

Meanwhile, researchers are still questioning the President's statement that 60 embryonic stem cell lines are available. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, for example, sent a stern letter to the Administration demanding that it publicly disclose details of all the cell lines. AAAS says scientists need to know how the lines were developed, their genetic and geographic diversity, and who controls access to them, among other things, before decisions can be made.

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