NIH: More stem cell lines OK'd for federal funds

By The Post's health correspondent Rob Stein:

The National Institutes of Health will announce Tuesday that four additional lines of human embryonic stem cells are now eligible for federal funding, including the most widely used line.

The NIH's approval of the lines should alleviate mounting concerns among supporters of stem-cell research that the Obama administration was hindering research.

"Many people who had been working on these lines, and concerned about whether they would be able to continue to work with these lines, will now be reassured that their research can now go forward," NIH Director Francis Collins said in an interview in which he disclosed the decision. The federal research agency was to formally announce the determination later in the day.

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