Report Financing for Research on Embryonic Stem Cells: The Situation in Italy and its Origins. 3rd Italian National Congress of the Group of Italian Researchers on Embryonic Stem Cells

“Opened up to this vast and most excellent science, of which my work is mere the beginning, ways and means by which other minds more acute than mine will explore in remotest corners” These are the words of Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei, who was sentenced to indefinite prison in San Macuto Palace, on which site the Group of Italian Researchers on Embryonic Stem Cells (IES Group) organized its 3rd National Congress on Research on Embryonic Stem Cells (Rome, 1 July 2008). These scientists strongly believe in the potential of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), which are already the main focus of their research. A parallel thus emerges, as innovative and revolutionary scientific issues are discussed once again in this place. In the magnificent structure of the Refectory Room of the Chamber of Deputies at San Macuto Palace, IES scientists presented their research and discussed ethical aspects of its implications. In this site Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was tried by the Inquisition for his advocacy of Copernican theory, which held that the Earth revolves around the sun. Since 1974 the Palace is an official site of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. The meeting was sponsored by the Consulta di Bioetica, Politeia, Unistem, Estools, and Emmeplus. The main aim of the Congress was to highlight the need for an immediate and tangible opening to research on hESC in Italy. In fact, even while it is legally allowed to work on established hESC lines, it is prohibited to derive new lines from embryos; and even more limiting is the lack of funding from the Government. Consequently, a first and most crucial step is to improve the dialogue between science and both society and politics, in order to make known the potential, in terms of therapeutic outcomes, of hESC research