Massachusetts Proposes $1.25 Billion to Compete with California

Governor Deval Patrick announced yesterday a $1 billion proposal to fund stem cell research in Massachusetts. Patrick stated an additional $250 million would be made available by matching funds from private businesses.

The money would provide grants for university and hospital scientists, establish special research centers to make their work faster and more efficient, and train workers for biotechnology businesses.

It would also establish the first stem cell bank, a repository of all the stem cell lines created in Massachusetts laboratories, which would serve as a kind of stem cell lending library to scientists around the world.

Massachussets laboratories have created more than 30 new stem-cell lines -- more than any other state -- since President Bush's restrictions were put into place. The Boston Globe reports that $38 million of this money would be spent on RNAi, or RNA interference, research.

The proposal is supported by leaders in the state Congress, and public opposition is lower than it was in California. Patrick hopes this proposal will pass quickly, providing money for research by July 2008, and provide competition for the California Institute of Regenerative
Medicine.

Massachusetts Proposes Stem Cell Research Grants [New York Times]