Advanced Cell Technology Gets Itself into the News. Again

ACT, which claimed falsely to have created ES cell lines without actually destroying embryos, has gotten itself in the news again: This time to tout receipt of a $204,000 NIH grant to conduct embryonic stem cell research. As usual, the company’s spin machine is whirling like a centrifuge. “Advanced Cell’s CEO, William Caldwell, called the grant ‘momentous’ because of what it says about the changing political climate and the federal government’s move toward greater support for research into embryonic stem cell science.”

Puhleese. First, to get the grant ACT has to be using Bush-approved cell lines. Second, in 2005, the NIH put out $50 million for human ESCR. Momentous? Only in that ACT got another article to put in its scrap book of memories to show potential investors.