Contamination of Stem Cells - Continued

Following the "Current human embryonic stem cell lines contaminated UCSD/Salk team finds" story from two days ago, I spotted an interesting comment from the White House Gaggle : "This is an issue that has been previously raised and discussed. We've known from the very beginning that the lines that were authorized for research had this particular trait…and the scientists at NIH are very well aware of it and remain confident that the stem cell lines that are available will provide us with the adequate supply to do the most basic research." The NIH had asked the FDA to specifically look at the issue and the FDA concluded that the same issue is presented by human feeder cells. "There is still much uncertainty about the promise of stem cell research. We are only at the stage of the beginning of basic research to understand the promise of embryonic stem cell research."