Now that the creation of new embryonic stem cell lines for research is legal in Michigan thanks to the passage of a referendum last fall and President Obama has lifted the ban on federal funds for such research, the University of Michigan is launching a new project to create new stem cell lines that can be used in medical research:
 

The university’s A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute said it’s forming the Consortium for Stem Cell Therapy to create new embryonic stem cell lines as researchers seek treatments and cures for numerous diseases.

The consortium, which will be based in the university’s medical school, is expected to begin this spring. University officials say $2 million has been secured for hiring new scientists and technicians and other startup costs, and additional fundraising is under way.

“Truly, the stars are all aligned today,” institute director Eva Feldman said by phone from California, where the University of Michigan’s institute operates a laboratory with the University of California, San Diego to perform stem cell work researchers have been unable to do in Michigan.

“What we can now do is begin efforts in Michigan — double the action and get twice as much done.”

This is a major change in a state where, only six months ago, Feldman and other researchers could have been arrested and sent to prison for doing this kind of work. An expansion of embryonic stem cell work at U of M was expected, but the timing of the announcement, coupled with President Obama’s executive order lifting Bush-era restrictions on the use of federal funds for such research, was ideal.