Thirteen embryonic stem-cell lines were approved for use by U.S.-funded researchers today, the first of hundreds of cell colonies that may become available under new polices promised by President Barack Obama.

Stem cells taken from days-old human embryos can be kept alive indefinitely in solution, and have the ability to turn into about 200 cell types in the body. Use of these so-called cell lines is opposed by some people because extracting them destroys the embryos. The stem-cell expansion was announced by Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, in a telephone briefing with reporters.

Another 20 lines may be cleared as soon as Dec. 4, the first of “a wave” of approvals that could make hundreds available, Collins said. Obama pledged to end U.S. stem-cell restrictions during his presidential campaign. Congress twice voted to overturn the limits, put in place by President George W. Bush, and Bush vetoed both measures.

“With these restrictions now being lifted, we can now compete, hopefully, with the U.K. and some of the other foreign governments that are running with us,” said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Worcester, Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology Inc., in a telephone interview today. “It would be good for us to be back in the game.”

The newly approved lines were created by George Daley, a researcher at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Ali Brivanlou, a researcher at Rockefeller University in New York. They were made using private donations during the eight years that federal funding for stem-cell research was sharply restricted by the Bush administration.

“It’s been a long time coming and it’s a huge relief,” said Daley, whose research team at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute created 11 of the newly approved lines. “This is the first step toward widely expanded access to hundreds of lines that have been derived since the initial Bush policy of 2001.”