LOS ANGELES - Dr. Hanna Mikkola, a 36-year-old native of Finland, has a lofty goal: She wants to cure leukemia.

Mikkola recently became an assistant professor at the new $20 million Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she is conducting stem cell research to learn more about how blood-forming stem cells develop.

She and other researchers say their work will be hampered by President Bush's veto Wednesday of a bill that would have expanded federally funded embryonic stem cell research.

But they also say their work will go on.

The veto means that researchers will have to pursue funding outside the National Institutes of Health if they want to use embryonic stem cells as they work toward medical breakthroughs. And many of them will be looking to the nation's statehouses to kick in some dollars.

A handful of states have already started providing such funding, and one -- California -- is leading the way, thanks to a voter-approved initiative that's putting $3 billion toward stem cell research beyond federal restrictions President Bush put in place in 2001.

Though funding for the initiative -- Proposition 71, passed in 2004 -- has been tied up in court, research already has been gaining momentum. A new agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has been created to oversee stem cell research grants once the funding is resolved in court, likely next year.

Thanks to private donors, the agency already has awarded training grants to develop a new generation of stem cell researchers. And last year, UCLA received a $3.75 million grant from the state agency -- the largest awarded -- to train young scientists in stem cell research.

'That's my cell'

Mikkola, for one, said she hopes to learn what happens when blood cell development goes awry and leads to leukemia. She's been using mouse stem cells for her research so far, but as she gains more understanding of the biology of stem cells, she hopes to use human embryonic stem cells that eventually could lead to therapies.

Mikkola said she's had an interest in leukemia since learning how it affects children. Also, for whatever reason, she's fascinated with blood cells.

"I really love to study blood cells," she said. "That's my cell."

Using embryonic stem cells for research has never been a moral issue for her, Mikkola said.

"It's not cells taken out of a baby that is growing," she said. "It's cells that are in the freezer that are not planned to have a life. For me, I don't understand why it's a more noble choice to keep these cells in a freezer or trash them, rather than use them for stem cell research."

Stem cell basics

So what exactly are embryonic stem cells?

The cells are the blank-slate, basic building blocks of the body. Forming within days of an egg cell becoming fertilized, they are master cells that can become any type of human cell. University of Wisconsin researcher Jamie Thomson first isolated embryonic stem cells in 1998.

The cells are taken from embryos that are about 5 days old, as a small clump of about 100 cells. The process destroys the embryo. The cells, when properly nurtured, are able to replicate and form colonies, also known as stem cell lines.

Some stem cells also can be found in adult tissue, such as in bone marrow that produces different types of blood cells.

Scientists hope to control stem cells to turn them into specific types of cells that can grow into healthy tissue, potentially repairing diseased or damaged parts of the body. Scientists agree that human treatments are years away.

Concerns

Not everyone supports the idea of expanding the availability of embryonic stem cells for medical research.

The president is among those who feel that a moral line is crossed when embryos are destroyed for science, so he supports federally funded research only on stem cell lines created before Aug. 9, 2001 -- the day he addressed the nation on the subject.

Strong majorities in the House and Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would have allowed federally funded research on lines created later. Bush's response: the first veto of his administration.

He announced the veto surrounded by children who were born through embryo donation.

"They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research," he said. "The remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells. And they remind us that in our zeal for new treatments and cures, America must never abandon our fundamental morals."

Research hurdles

Dr. Jerome Zack, a faculty researcher at UCLA's stem cell institute, recently found that it's possible to coax human embryonic stem cells into becoming infection-fighting T-cells -- a discovery that could lead to therapies for fighting HIV and AIDS.

The results were gained from a single federally approved line of stem cells.

"We don't know if that's an optimal line; different stem cell lines may behave differently," Zack said. "So, access to a greater number of lines may allow for a better optimization of the whole procedure."

Another researcher, Dr. Harley Kornblum, is investigating cures for brain tumors, Lou Gehrig's disease and spinal cord injury at UCLA's institute. His research relies about 80 percent on federal funding; the presidential veto, Kornblum said, will slow the pace of his work.

Embryonic stem cells line outside those approved by Bush have been created at Harvard University and the University of California, San Francisco, but they can't be used in federally funded studies, researchers said. In order to use non-approved stem cell lines like these, Kornblum said his lab would have to duplicate efforts and equipment and separate researchers' salaries.

Dr. Judith Gasson, co-director of UCLA's stem cell institute, also worries that the federal restrictions will prevent trainees from entering the field because funding is too difficult to get and rules are too restrictive.

"Some of our best and brightest researchers will be lured away to other countries where funding is easily attainable," she said. "It will in fact slow down our ability to make progress in understanding how stem cells are able to replicate themselves."

Other states

California isn't the only state that's funding embryonic stem cell research. The others:

Connecticut has embarked on a 10-year, $100 million stem cell initiative.

Illinois last year spent $10 million on stem cell funding.

Maryland has approved a $15 million budget for stem cell research.

New Jersey has spent about $25 million in two years.