Researchers at Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Massachusetts, believe that they have found a way to make embryonic stem cells without upsetting anybody. A paper recently published in the online edition of Nature by five scientists at the firm describes a technique that could allow creation of new embryonic stem cell lines without destroying the embryo from which they originate. ACTs researchers and others have hypothesized that biopsied cells could be encouraged to reproduce and generate a line of stem cells. However, ACT was the first to succeed with the technique, and they did so by culturing individual cells separately while permitting them to share the same liquid medium. The technique is a stepping stone to the desired outcome of working with a single cell from each embryo. It is not clear if the cells cultured together in the series of experiments came from the same or different embryos, and Robert Lanza, VP for research and scientific development for ACT, says some of the company's unpublished work hints that a biopsied cell could possibly be nurtured by keeping it close to the embryo from which it came. Dr. Lanza explains that pluripotent cells can generate any cell type, but not an entire organization, but evidence from other mammals shows that the individual cells of a developing embryo have lost totipotency (the ability to generate an entire organism) by the eight-cell stage. Alta Charo, legal expert at the University of Wisconsin, says ACT's new technique could circumvent the original U.S. congressional law, but might still be out of compliance with President George Bush's August 9, 2001, decree that no federal money could be spent on research on embryonic stem cell cultures created after that day.