NIH Head Nominee Addresses Stem Cell Research During Confirmation Hearing

Dr. Elias Zerhouni, President Bush's nominee to head the NIH, "sped" through an April 30 confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, addressing questions about embryonic stem cell research and promising to "abide by" Bush's restrictions on the controversial research, the Los Angeles Times reports. Zerhouni, who is currently head of Johns Hopkins University Hospital's radiology department, played a "crucial role" in establishing the university's Institute for Cell Technology. Zerhouni told the panel that he pushed for the institute because he was "concerned about the lack of any federal funding to advance fundamental research still needed in this new and fledgling field." Noting that securing private funding can be a "great burden" on researchers, he called Bush's decision last August to allow limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research "an important advance." Zerhouni added that he felt the existing stem cell lines approved for use in federally funded research "would be sufficient," but he "ducked questions" about whether he would urge Bush to reconsider his policy if the existing lines proved insufficient, the Times reports (Garvey, Los Angeles Times, 5/1). Committee chair Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) told Zerhouni that he will push for a vote on the nomination "within days" so that Zerhouni could see "what overwhelming support" he has (Washington Post, 5/1).