In a 2008 study, Levine, found that US researchers published 46% of the world's top papers in the fields of molecular biology and genetics, but produced only 36% of the human embryonic stem cell studies.

Speaking with the Los Angeles Times, Levine said that former President Bush's policy was partly to blame, and that the elimination of Bush's limits on stem cell research would help reverse the trend.

Levine told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "It's not going to be a short-term fix, necessarily, but some new lines of research may open up." Most important, he noted, lifting Bush funding restrictiosn will allow scientists to "push their research toward the most promising technologies rather than the most politically expedient technologies."