LINCOLN, Neb.  In an unusual pushback against President Obama’s expansion of federal financing of human embryonic stem cell research, the University of Nebraska is considering restricting its stem cell experiments to cell lines approved by President George W. Bush.

The university’s board of regents is scheduled to take up the matter on Friday, and if it approves the restrictions  some opponents of the research say they have the votes, though others remain doubtful  the University of Nebraska will become the first such state institution in the country to impose limits on stem cell research that go beyond what state and federal laws allow, university officials say.

For weeks, the Nebraska board of regents has been the focus of a fierce campaign by opponents of embryonic stem cell research, most recently by a flood of e-mail and telephone calls, a petition drive and radio advertisements.

The effort, which is being met with an equally heated push by supporters, is a new front in the battle over the politically contentious research: it is being fought before a public university’s governing board, not in a state legislature or in a ballot measure, where opponents have taken their fights before. “This could be another possible tool,” said David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council.