Stem-cell research in doubt as funders clash with government

May 10 2001

ALISON ABBOTT

[MUNICH] A public clash between Germany's main research funding agency and the government over human embryonic stem-cell research has stalled a decision on the country's first grant application for such work.

The agency, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), announced on 3 May that it was ready to fund human embryonic stem-cell research. But the research ministry, the BMBF, responded immediately with a call for a moratorium on funding individual projects while ethical and moral issues are clarified — setting the stage for a rare confrontation between the supposedly independent DFG and the BMBF, which provides about half of its funding.

As each side paused to consider its position, the DFG's grants committee (which includes BMBF representatives) deferred a decision on the grant to the University of Bonn neuroscientist Oliver Brüstle.

A German embryo protection law forbids creation of stem-cell lines from human embryos for research purposes. But it is not illegal to import cell lines for such purposes. Two years ago the DFG published a position statement saying that, given the special sensitivities of German society and how little was known about how embryonic and adult stem cells differentiate into other cell types, German scientists should focus their efforts on studying the potential of adult stem cells.

But research has moved much further since then, says Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, president of the DFG — "and surprisingly fast". After its senate meeting last Thursday, the DFG issued a new position statement, saying that it now saw "no justification for excluding [from funding] research on imported embryonic stem cells produced legally in other countries." The statement also hints at the need for the embryo protection law to be modified to allow cell lines to be developed in Germany.

The DFG's grants committee, which comprises 19 academic members and 18 representatives from DFG funding organizations, primarily the federal and state governments, met on Friday to discuss funding of applications ranked through peer review. It had been expected to approve Brüstle's application, submitted 10 months ago, to study in vitro differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into neuronal cells, for transplantation into myelin-deficient rats. Deficiency in myelin, the sheath that protects nerves, occurs in multiple sclerosis.

But just after the DFG had announced its new position, research minister Edelgard Bulmahn said that the BMBF "would apply pressure" to defer Brüstle's application.

Winnacker denies experiencing political pressure. "The committee had had no time to absorb the conclusions of the senate the night before, and we decided it would only be fair to give the evaluators time to consider the implications," he says. The decision was deferred for two months.

Bulmahn says that Germany's new national ethics council, created last week by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, should debate the issue of human embryonic stem-cell research. "New courses that cross long-established ethical boundaries, cannot be changed in a hurry," she says.

Wolf-Michael Catenhusen, state secretary for research, says: "The DFG can formulate its position as often as it wants, but this does not change public opinion — nor political opinion."

"It is very appropriate that Germany has approached embryonic stem-cell research slowly and carefully," says Brüstle. But he is surprised and disappointed that his research is still being held up. "The continual delays are starting to feel no different from rejection."

Winnacker declines to speculate on what would happen if the research ministry tried to instruct the DFG — whose independence is enshrined in statute — not to fund embryonic stem-cell research. "I don't know," he says. "Political interference is something that has never happened in the 51 years of DFG history, so we have no precedent."

 Category: 31. Stem Cells