By Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor
moleary@newhavenregister.com

Dr. Caroline Dealy of the University of Connecticut hopes someday to be able to help the millions of people who suffer from osteoarthritis.

She and her colleagues already have developed a technique to convert stem cells into cartilage cells, and are proceeding to the next stage to see if the cells can repair living cartilage tissue in animal joints.

This has all been done with money awarded to UConn scientists from the $100 million pot approved in 2005 by the state legislature to be spread out over a decade.

Dealy is happy for that distinction, given this week’s ruling by Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of U.S. District of Columbia that blocks President Barack Obama’s 2009 executive order that expanded use of federal money for human embryonic stem cell research.

Dealy has applied for federal National Institutes of Health grants that are pending, however, and could go into a legal limbo. “The scientific community felt that this had been pretty much settled law,” Dealy said Wednesday. “It’s pretty surprising.”

Lamberth granted a temporary injunction in the case and found the Obama order violated a ban on federal money being used to destroy embryos.

Under the Bush administration, a limited number of human embryonic stem cell lines already in existence were approved for research. Under the new policy, additional lines are now in use, as long as federal funds were not used to extract them, which kills the embryos.

Lamberth’s ruling is so broad there is concern among scientists that no federal money will be allowed to support human embryonic stem cell research going forward.

The judge said it returns federal policy to the “status quo,” but what that means is unclear.

Dr. Marc Lalande, director of the UConn’s Stem Cell Institute, like other scientists, felt blind-sided by the court’s ruling. “We didn’t see this coming,” he said Wednesday. Continued...

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The ruling was welcomed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which called it a “victory for common sense and sound medical ethics.”

“I hope this court decision will encourage our government to renew and expand its commitment to ethically sound avenues of stem cell research,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.

UConn scientists have been awarded more than $24 million in four competitive rounds from the state stem cell fund, while Yale University has received at least $17 million; no one is too worried about these funds.

Yale also received $4.9 million in human stem cell research grants in 2009 and 2010 from the National Institutes of Health, according to its website. A Yale spokeswoman said one NIH grant was pending review, but she did not know of any other NIH grants at the university. She could not be reached to discuss the discrepancy.

Lalande said UConn would likely retool and make sure stem cell lines tied to federal money are those approved under the Bush administration in anticipation of a final court ruling that might require this.

“The research will go forward,” Lalande said. He said it will be easier to do this now than in a year or more when the court rules. The U.S. Justice Department has appealed the decision and is asking that the temporary injunction be lifted.

Lalande said they would make sure there is no co-mingling of federal and state grants, though this will result in time delays for some researchers.

Dealy said she couldn’t emphasize too strongly the importance of the state’s stem cell investment.

Dealy said she also works with induced pluripotent stem cells, which are specific cells that have been reprogrammed back to their embryonic state. “They have a lot of potential, but they are very new and we aren’t sure if they are the functional equivalent. It’s too soon to abandon embryos,” she said. “We have to have embryonic cells to test them against. They are the gold standard.”

Call Mary E. O’Leary at 203-789-5731.

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