Kathy Hudson, the director of Johns Hopkins Genetics & Public Policy Center, will be NIH director Francis Collins's chief of staff, reports Science Insider. As part of that job, Hudson plans to work with FDA to oversee genetic testing, which she advocated while at Hopkins.
Also, NIH is facing a lawsuit that says the new stem cell policy violates federal law, another post at Science Insider says. The suit was filed by Boston Biomedical Research Institute's James Sherley and AVM Biotechnology's Theresa Deisher and it is supported by Nightlight Christian Adoption and other groups. The filing claims that the new policy violates the Dickey-Wicker amendment. The amendment, signed by President Clinton, says that federally-funded scientist may not create human embryos for research purposes nor perform research that destroys human embryos.