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Tracking and assessing the rise of state-funded stem cell research

Nature Biotechnology volume 28, pages 1246–1248 (2010)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

The editorial in your October issue1 highlights the legal challenges to new guidelines issued by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in July 2009 for the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. In the eight-year period preceding these most recent NIH guidelines, only a small number of cell lines could be studied with federal funds. During this time, six states—California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and New York—took on a role typically played by the NIH and created funding programs specifically designed to support stem cell research, including hESC research. These are not the first state programs to fund scientific research but their commitment to basic research is atypical, as most state science and technology programs have focused on science closer to commercialization2. Although the state stem cell programs differ, they each share at least two goals: advancing promising science, including research not eligible for federal funding during the Bush Administration, and returning economic benefits to their state.

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Figure 1: Comparing state and NIH stem cell funding.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Roadmap for an Entrepreneurial Economy Program, funded by the Kauffman Foundation and the Georgia Research Alliance, and Georgia Tech. They thank J. Walsh at Georgia Tech for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. They also appreciate the assistance they received with data collection from officials in various state stem cell agencies. A.D.L. would also like to thank A. Jakimo, whose comment at a meeting of the Interstate Alliance on Stem Cell Research inspired collection of these data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Ruchir N Karmali, Natalie M Jones & Aaron D Levine

  2. Institute of Bioengineering & Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Aaron D Levine

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  1. Ruchir N Karmali
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  2. Natalie M Jones
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  3. Aaron D Levine
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Correspondence to Aaron D Levine.

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Karmali, R., Jones, N. & Levine, A. Tracking and assessing the rise of state-funded stem cell research. Nat Biotechnol 28, 1246–1248 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1210-1246

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