A laboratory technician tests fluids at the Institute of Cellular Medicine in San Jose, Costa Rica, in May. (Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters)

A U.S. court ruling that undercut federally funded embryonic stem cell research will be quickly appealed, the Obama administration declared Tuesday.

But dozens of experiments aimed at fighting spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments probably will stop in the meantime.

The White House and scientists said Monday's court ruling was broader than first thought because it would prohibit even the more restricted stem cell research allowed for the past decade under former U.S. president George W. Bush's rules.

The Justice Department said an appeal is expected this week of the federal judge's preliminary injunction that disrupted an entire field of science.

That initial ruling won't stop all the work that scientists call critical to finding new therapies for devastating diseases. The National Institutes of Health told anxious researchers late Tuesday that if they've already received money this year — $131 million in total — they can keep doing their stem cell experiments.

But 22 projects that were due to get yearly checks in September, $54 million worth, "will be stopped in their tracks," said NIH Director Francis Collins — meaning a waste of the millions those scientists already have spent unless they can find private dollars to keep the stem cells alive.

Dozens more proposals won't get a hearing pending the court case's conclusion.

"This decision has just poured sand into the engine of discovery," Collins said.

However, the ruling drew praise from the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys who helped with the lawsuit filed by two researchers against the administration rules.

"The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments — prohibited by federal law — that destroy human life," said Steven Aden, the group's senior legal counsel.

"The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos."

In March 2009, Obama issued an executive order in which he revoked restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research imposed by Bush.

What followed were new guidelines, which allowed researchers to use stem cells from surplus embryos donated by patients at fertility clinics

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth temporarily blocked government funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Lamberth ruled that the pending lawsuit against the Obama policy was likely to succeed in its argument that such research violates the intent of a law prohibiting use of taxpayer dollars in work that destroys an embryo.