Vatican gives $2.7M to U-Md. research

The Vatican has donated $2.7 million to a project led by the University of Maryland's School of Medicine to finance new research into the potential use of adult stem cells in the treatment of intestinal and possibly other diseases.

Officials say the project is at a very preliminary phase, and it will be years before any clinical treatment might be available.

The Church is opposed to embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of embryos, but it supports the use of adult stem cells.

Researchers involved in the Vatican-financed project say they want to assess the potential of intestinal stem cells for therapeutic use.

"We want to harvest them, we want to isolate them, we want to make them grow outside our body and see if they are pluripotent," said Alessio Fasano, the scientist leading the project and the director of the university's Center for Celiac Research.

-- Associated Press