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The Scientist, January 20, 2005
An Eastern US Stem Cell Hub?
Alison McCook
This week, New York State introduced a proposal to allocate public funds
for stem cell research, joining neighbors New Jersey and Connecticut in the
fight against the feared "brain drain" to more stem cell friendly
states.
On Sunday (January 16), New York Senate Democratic leader David Paterson
proposed earmarking $1 billion in state funds for stem cell research and
creating a New York stem cell institute. If approved by the senate, assembly,
and Governor George Pataki, New Yorkers will vote on the proposal in an
upcoming election.
Since California voters passed a $3 billion measure to create an institute
for regenerative medicine based on embryonic stem cell research, other states
have been scrambling to prevent their research talent from heading west, New
York Senator Liz Krueger (D) told The Scientist. "California has almost
started a range war over scientists," she said. Krueger noted she plans
to introduce a bill next week that would support embryonic and adult stem
cell research and ban human cloning.
"I think everyone is afraid to lose the research status that we have and
the researchers that we have," agreed Andrew Spano, the Westchester, NY,
county executive, who recently wrote a letter to the governor requesting the
state follow California's lead. He added that New York was also likely nudged
into action by the initiative taken by New Jersey and Connecticut in recent
months.
Last week, Connecticut legislators introduced a bill that endorses research
on embryonic and adult stem cells, and Governor Jodi Rell has said she would
take between $10 and $20 million from the current budget surplus to promote
stem cell research in the state.
In 2004, then-governor of New Jersey Jim McGreevey proposed using state funds
to create the New Jersey Institute for Stem Cell Research, a joint project of
the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers
University. The budget earmarked $6.5 million in state funds to be the
included in a $10 million publicprivate stem cell fund, which will be used to
attract top researchers from around the world. An additional $50 million in
public and private funds would be used to support the institute over the
following 5 years.
Diane Krause, who works with mouse embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells
at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and who has been helping to write the
Connecticut bill, confirmed that she had been invited to "look at other
positions in other states." If the Connecticut bill passes, however, she
told The Scientist she would be "more likely" to consider joining a
Yale stem cell program, which does not currently exist.
So why was New York, with its world-renowned research organizations, the last
of the Tri-states to step forward? Krueger said that the state has a strong
lobby that somewhat "unfairly" labels stem cell research as an
abortion issue, possibly scaring legislators. Senator Eric Schneiderman (D),
who is co-sponsoring the funding bill, added that New York is known to have
one of the most "dysfunctional" state governments, which may have
slowed legislators' steps in this direction.
Although Democrats tend to be friendlier to stem cell research and although
New York is currently headed by a Republican governor and a Republican
majority in the New York Senate, Krueger said she believes the proposals will
eventually pass. In the last election, some Republican senators were replaced
by Democrats, and the more people hear about stem cell research, the more
supportive they become, she said: "I think times are changing."
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