Will President Barack Obama’s decision to lift restrictions on stem cell research be beneficial to the biotechnology industry and its exchange traded funds (ETFs)?

This lift on research restrictions will once again allow researchers to use federal funds to work with new cell lines, however the regulations on creating new stem cell lines remains in place, state Julie Rovner and Jenny Gold for the Associated Press. Although there are many opponents to this type of research, it might be an answer to spark the U.S. economy and innovation.

The lift is estimated to strengthen New York’s economy by creating approximately 5,000 new jobs in science, research and medicine, states Michael Amon of News Day.  Additionally, there is a new research consortium at the University of Michigan which is planning on creating stem cells from about 400 embryos that have already been donated to the school, states Megha Satyanarayana of the Associated Press.  This will create more university jobs and could possibly lead to a medical phenomenon.

Some ETFs that may be affected by stem cell research are:

• HOLDRS Biotech (BBH): down 3.8% year to date

• SPDR S&P Biotech (XBI): down 18.2% year to date

Tags: BBH, Biotechnology, Health Care, Sector ETFs, Technology, XBI