President Barack Obama is widely expected to sign an executive order today which undoes the previous Bush administration policy and earlier executive order limiting embryonic stem cell research. 

Former President George W. Bush established a policy in August 2001 limiting the use of embryonic stem cells to a small range already in use at that time by restricting federal funding for research to those cell lines in which embryos had been destroyed prior to the implementation of the policy, had only been acquired from reproductive processes and through donations without any financial incentives. (Policy at the link provided is expected to change at the National Institute of Health Web site once the executive order is signed.) Bush had also signed an executive order in June 2007 which allowed the expansion of available embryonic stem cell lines, but only under a narrow “ethical” framework.

Michigan may benefit from an expansion of stem cell research using embryonic cells; the state’s voters approved embryonic stem cell research with the passage of Proposition 2 in November last year. University of Michigan’s Center for Stem Cell Biology is one of the research facilities which is expected to begin wider work after Obama’s executive order is signed.