Newswise — (NEW YORK, NY, July 28, 2011) – Commenting on yesterday’s ruling in favor of the Obama administration’s continued funding of embryonic stem cell research, Lee Goldman, MD, Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, and Executive Vice President, Columbia University, said:
“We are grateful that the court has correctly rejected this attempt to inject politics into science. Stem cell research offers some of the most promising possibilities to treat and eventually cure major diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s disease and to gain important insights into everything from human development to the biological processes that lead to cancer and other diseases. I am pleased that researchers here at Columbia University Medical Center and around the world can proceed with this important scientific work.”
Christopher Henderson, PhD, professor of pathology, neurology and neuroscience, co-director of the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease at Columbia, and senior scientific advisor to the Project A.L.S./ Jenifer Estess Laboratory for Stem Cell Research, said:
“The federal court’s decision is great news for Columbia stem cell researchers and for the community at large. Even though multiple alternative sources of human stem cells are being evaluated, real progress can be made only by allowing objective comparisons between these and the “gold-standard” embryonic stem cells. Given the immense potential of stem cell research for human health, we hope that funding by the National Institutes of Health in this area will expand to allow support of top-level research using all available models.”
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Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Established in 1767, Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons was the first institution in the country to grant the M.D. degree and is among the most selective medical schools in the country. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest in the United States.-####-