The first batch of human embryonic stem cells was approved by the U. S .government on Wednesday allowing the researchers who are using them to get millions of dollars in federal funding as promised by President Barack Obama in March.

Two researchers at Harvard University and Rockfeller University made the batches known as lines utilizing the funds, as per Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

He told the reporters during a telephone briefing, "Today we are announcing the approval of the first 13 stem cell lines."

Collins, however, said the NIH-approved lines represent an acceptable compromise. "I think the broad consensus among most of the public ... is that stem cell research of this ethically acceptable kind should go forward," he said.

30 proposals have been funded by the NIH totaling more than $20 million which would use human embryonic stem cells.

Dr. George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Massachusetts made eleven of the lines. He informed that his lab started making the stem cells in 2006 using private donations and is looking forward to getting federal money.