A history of the stem cell lawsuit & what it meant to California scientists

Today U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth dismissed a lawsuit that has been creating uncertainty for stem cell scientists for almost a year. The Washington Post quotes Lamberth's opinion:

“This Court, following the D.C. Circuit’s reasoning and conclusions, must find that defendants reasonably interpreted the Dickey-Wicker Amendment to permit funding for human embryonic stem cell research because such research is not ‘research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed,’ ” Lamberth wrote.

Here's some history on the lawsuit from this blog:

• What the embryonic stem cell research ban means to California researchers (8/27/2010)
• Government appeals stem cell ruling, claims harm to patients (8/31/2010)
• The ups and downs of federal funding for stem cell research (9/9/2010)
• Legal wrangling slows Stanford researcher's quest for a cure (9/15/2010)
• U.S. Appeals Court decision--good news, but not the final word (4/29/2011) 

A.A.