Hard Data: National Policies Limit Stem Cell Research Output

According to a recent study published in the journal Cell, federal policy has a measurable impact on the amount of human embryonic stem cell research conducted in different countries. Countries that exceed expectations for hESC research output tend to have permissive policy environments for the work, whereas underperforming countries often have “protracted policy debates” and strong feelings of uncertainty about the science at hand.

The study, conducted by Aaron D. Levine of Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Public Policy, compares data on the number of hESC-related publications appearing in peer-reviewed journals and concludes that the United States is lagging in the production of hESC-related research publications. Although still the largest single producer of hESC-related research publications, the United States is still the largest underperformer following the metric used by the analysts. One explanation is the fact that Bush Administration policy dictates that federal funds may only be used for hESC research only on cell lines derived before August 9, 2001.

According to the study, scientists in the United States produced 36 percent of worldwide hESC-related research, compared with 47 percent of RNAi-related research. Research involving RNA interference, a method used to inhibit gene expression, is much less controversial than hESC research. According to the study, “Scientists in the United States produced 36% of hESC-related research compared with 47% of RNAi-related research and 46% of research in the control set.” Thus, it is numerically apparent that America’s contribution to RNAi research publications fell more closely in line with the standard than hESC research. This is why RNAi research output becomes a suitable control with which to compare with work on hESC.

The comparison data demonstrates that the share of research from different countries related to hESC differs more from the control set than do their shares of research related to RNAi:

National polices also render France an underperforming country, despite having temporarily relaxed its laws. This makes a key component of the study clear: countries which have long histories of relentless support for hESC research are those countries which are currently over-performing.

Four top overperforming countries were identified: the United Kingdom, Israel, China, and Singapore. While there was no clear relationship between underperformance and the policy environment, countries categorized as underperforming in hESC-related research lacked permissive policies, complementary government support, or both. The study also provides an interesting insight into the relationship between hESC and RNAi performance. As the figure below demonstrates, only the United Kingdom and China demonstrate a slight significant RNAi overperformance. None of the hESC overperforming countries have underperformed in the number of published papers on RNAi research:

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