The Bush administration’s “ban” on federal funding of stem-cell research apparently has led innovators and scientists to find paths of private funding, with “firewalls” to protect other federal grants in the same research facility. Yes, firewalls. This means a much higher cost to research since a whole new redundant infrastructure is required, without any of the normal benefits (they must remain isolated).

You might call this holy-law approach to science the exact opposite of the spirit in the 1950s and 60s when the US wanted to land a man on the moon — imagine if Kennedy had said that space exploration is an immoral pursuit and therefore would not be federally funded…rockets would have had to been made by private firms only and anyone mingling funds would have their rocket research shut-down. Incidentally, this reminds me of the tight security controls around Russian scientists that prevented them from ever knowing the real name or location of their comrades, but I digress…

After President Bush announced his funding policy, UCSF’s stem cell scientists, including Susan Fisher, confined their work on new human embryonic stem cell lines to an off-campus site, a former dental office.

In December 2002, a storm swept through the San Francisco Bay area, triggering power outages. On campus, emergency generators kicked in, protecting patients and biological research materials. Fisher’s lab lacked back-up power. Her cells died, setting the school’s program back two years, she said.

“It was extremely painful,” Fisher said in a June 1 telephone interview. “You sit there and watch the clock go by. We knew they were dying.”

No disaster recovery plan, eh? I bet the cost of back-up power is a lot less than two years of research. Clearly the need for information security will boom in this industry of completely redundant systems within a single entity that can not mingle in any way. Good for the information security profession and general contractors, bad for science, health and human welfare.