Stem cell funding in the NY pipeline

While New York state legislators scramble to complete a budget to fund stem cell research by April 1, scientists and advocates continue to push for broad support for varying types of stem cell research.Within his first two months in office, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer presented an initial budget proposal slotting $1 billion over the next 10 years for stem cell research. A final version of the budget must be approved by the three power centers of New York -- the Governor's office, the State Assembly and Senate. A similar effort proved unsuccessful -- former New York Governor George Pataki proposed a $1 billion allocation of funding to support stem cell research for the 2006-2007 budget, but it was not passed by the State Senate. Although the details of the budget are ever-changing as the three bodies continue to hear testimony and recommendations from experts over the next week, those closely involved in the process anticipate a $100 million appropriation each year for the next 10 years, beginning in 2008. However, the three legislative bodies' versions of how to fund stem cell research vary quite a bit and the three have much ground to cover if they are to come to agreement by April 1, Robin Elliott, chairman of the New Yorkers for the Advancement of Medical Research, told The Scientist. Originally, the Governor's proposed legislation was slotted as a bond act of $1.5 billion, part of which would support stem cell and "other biomedical research," while the remainder would fund various emerging technologies, such as renewable energy and nanotechnology. The State Assembly proposed $500 million over the next ten years to support stem cell research, with no appropriation for this year. The Assembly has long sought to get stem cell funding into the state budget, and has adopted language from previous bills. This includes a priority given to pluripotent stem cell and progenitor cell research that is unlikely to be funded by the federal government. "Embryonic stem cell research shows much promise for providing cures for the most debilitative diseases known to human kind," Bryan Franke, spokesperson for State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, told The Scientist. "With the exception of human cloning, the Assembly supports the full spectrum of stem cell research, including embryonic stem cells." The State Senate's proposed legislation is the most vaguely worded, only calling for the establishment of the "stem cell innovation account," with no definition of what types of stem cell research may be included or excluded. This bill slots $1 billion over the next 10 years, with $100 million allocated for this year.Members of the Senate and Governor's office declined comment for this article.So far, the proposals have been met with cautious optimism from some scientists and policy makers."As scientists, the major thing we need is support for research," Mark Noble, stem cell biology researcher at Rochester University, and one of many scientists who have provided expert advice to the Governor and Lieutenant Governor's office, told The Scientist. Above all, Noble said he wants to see the funding widely cast, to support a variety of different types of stem cell research. "This is broad area that reaches into many areas of medical practice," Noble added. "That is what these initiatives need to support. You explicitly support it by supporting the best research as judged in merit-based competition. That is the only way to do it."The key to ensuring that the best quality research is funded lies in electing an oversight board and a project selection committee of "disinterested" outsiders, according to Noble. For instance, California has employed out-of-state reviewers to select which in-state projects get funded. Both the Governor's and State Assembly's plans propose the formation of some kind of oversight board.Noble and other scientists, like Craig Jordan, also at the University of Rochester, have been working with the legislative bodies to help incorporate stem cell terminology that ensures a wide variety of stem cell research areas qualify for funding. Jordan and Noble helped devise stem cell terminology that was submitted to all three legislative bodies, including defining stem cells as "pluripotent stem cells, tissue-specific stem cells, and lineage-restricted progenitor cells, regardless of their origin." "Most scientists would agree that there's enormous promise across a broad range of different types of stem cell research," Jordan told The Scientist. "It's too early to say we'd fund only one area."Others involved in the process of designing the budget have raised concerns that both the Governor's and Senate's bills are too vague and may end up funding more capital projects, such as new buildings, than actual research. "If [the New York stem cell bill] is an alternative mechanism to provide funding to research institutions, that's fine, but lets call it what it is," Susan Soloman, CEO and co-founder of the New York Stem Cell Foundation told The Scientist. "It's all going to depend on who's on that [oversight] board."Noble estimated that the state is home to at least 100 labs working on stem cell research, and said the bill is vital to ensure that stem cell researchers in New York State stay there. "In New York we have six or seven medical schools that are training doctors," Dennis Charney, dean of the Mt Sinai School of Medicine, who has not been involved in designing the budget, told The Scientist. "And if we're leaving out stem cell research, that's going to have a major negative impact ultimately on the quality of science in New York."Andrea Gawrylewski mail@the-scientist.comLinks within this article:Eliot Spitzer http://www.ny.gov/governorA. McCook, "An eastern stem cell hub," The Scientist, January 20, 2005. http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22572NYAMR http://www.nyamr.orgSheldon Silver http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=064Mark Noble http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/GEBS/faculty/Mark_Noble.htmCraig Jordan http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/GEBS/faculty/Craig_Jordan.htmSusan Soloman http://www.nyscf.org/Board_of_Directors.phpNew York Stem Cell Foundation http://www.nyscf.orgDennis Charney http://directory.mssm.edu/faculty/facultyInfo.php?id=32833&deptid=32

Stem cell funding in the NY pipeline

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