Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committees
The National Academies called for the establishment of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight (ESCRO) Committees in its 2005 "Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research" to manage the ethical and legal concerns in human embryonic stem cell research. Because of the complexity and novelty of many of the issues involved in that research, the Guidelines committee believes that all research institutions engaged in human embryonic stem cell research should create and maintain these committees at the local level.
Ira Black
The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey, formed following the passage of legislation in 2004 making New Jersey the second state in the nation to approve stem cell research, named him as its first director. Affiliated with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, he served there as chairman of the department of neuroscience and cell biology. As director of the Stem Cell Institute, he expressed his frustration with federal opposition to embryonic stem cell research, stating that the therapies that could result from such studies had the potential to "get patients out of bed and out of wheelchairs" and that the researchers in the U.S. were trailing those elsewhere who were able to make further progress in their studies.