Australia is hoping a collaboration involving a U.S. university could make it the global leader in stem cell research, but experts doubt that will happen any time soon.

Australian Premier Steve Bracks says, this historic initiative will cement Victoria as a global leader in stem cell research and allow our leading stem cell researchers to work alongside their Californian counterparts.

According to Geoffrey Seiler, (editor/analyst of the Bull Market Report) the United States ‘is definitely a little behind’ in this field because of the restrictive rules on federal funding imposed by President Bush.

The Proposition 71 program, which established $3 billion in state funding for stem cell research, has been held up by two lawsuits that allege it is unconstitutional because it does not have adequate oversight.

Australia is hoping to establish a major presence in the field, however.

“It’s unfortunate that one of America`s leading universities has to look oversees for good partners,” said Sean Tipton, spokesman for the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, a consortium of patient and medical groups and biotech companies, that advocates for embryonic stem cell research.

‘Because of the federal policy, the number of institutions that are willing to make substantial efforts in embryonic stem cell research is quite limited,” Tipton told UPI.

Tipton said his organization was planning some fairly significant activities for next month to spur Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Republican-Tenn., to stick to his pledge to let the Senate vote on a bill that would relax some of the restrictions on federal funding of the research.
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