National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins informed that the agency has approved 13 human embryonic stem cell lines for research which were created in a manner that was 'beyond reproach' and 'ethnically defensible'.

Children's Hospital in Boston developed 11 of the approved lines and Rockfeller University in New York City started too. The NIH is analyzing another 96 lines, and Collins said that some new lines may be approved as early as Friday.

Collins also said that there are already 31 NIH grants approved to use stem cell lines. One grantee will utilize the stem cells to find out if heart tissue can be regenerated following a heart attack.

These stem cells could make it possible to 'come up with new treatment protocols for a myriad of diseases and injuries', including for diabetes and spinal-cord injuries said Collins.

George Q. Daley, the doctor at the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Children's Hospital in Boston said he only used embryos that were "essentially destined for waste." Daley got the stem
-cell lines from anonymous donors at Bringham and Women's Hospital in Boston.