For biologist Meri Firpo, the controversy over human embryonic stem cells boils down to pens.
In one of her laboratories -- the one that gets government money to study federally approved stem cells -- researchers are required to use Paper Mate Flexgrips.
Just across the hall is a nearly identical laboratory set up with private funds so she can study new embryonic stem cell lines that do not have President Bush's seal of approval. Firpo requires lab workers there to use Uni-balls to make sure no federally funded pen finds its way into forbidden territory.
It's an admittedly peculiar situation, but Firpo, a professor at the University of Minnesota, said she was not taking any chances. A willful violation of federal policy could make her liable for criminal and civil penalties. Even a mistake might imperil federal grants for her lab -- and for the rest of the university.
Bush's embryonic stem cell policy, which now restricts federal support to research involving about 20 cell lines, has created a logistical nightmare for science.
Researchers who study both federally approved and unapproved stem cells have had to buy duplicate equipment to conduct their experiments, then set up elaborate systems to keep their work completely separate.
Some scientists say the cumbersome dual system -- reaffirmed last month when Bush vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded funding to more than 100 newer cell lines -- puts U.S. researchers at a disadvantage.
"This is a bunch of compliance red tape that is a real pain in the neck," said Dr. John Boockvar, who heads Cornell University's Neurosurgery Laboratory for Translational Stem Cell Research. "It's hard enough to do successful research without having to worry about all this stuff."
So far, federal funding agencies have yet to redress anyone for violating their rules. But the fear that they would is palpable, because universities rely on the federal government for nearly two-thirds of their overall research budgets.
Don Ralbovsky, a spokesman for the National Institutes of Health, which bankrolls the bulk of federal stem cell funding, said the government was willing to be flexible.
If a researcher inadvertently mixes money, "we would work with them to rectify the situation and make whatever restitution is necessary," he said.
Those words offer little comfort to developmental biologist Susan Fisher of UC San Francisco.
