Local researchers hope to reap rewards from stem cell shift
By: David Sherfinski
Examiner Staff Writer
March 10, 2009
Local leaders are hoping that President Barack Obama’s executive order lifting the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research will spur the region’s scientific businesses and research centers.
Lawrence Tabak, acting deputy director of the Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health, said in a conference call with reporters that he anticipated funds from the $787 billion federal stimulus package would be available for use under the guidelines NIH will be developing over the next 120 days.
And much of what’s spent on harvesting cells from human embryos could end up going to local outfits.
Julia Spicer, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association, which works to foster business growth in the region, said the effects of the measure could take time but would likely affect local universities.
“It probably is going to have some significant impact on universities from a research and development standpoint,” she said, adding the order could be “a stimulus for early-stage [stem cell] research. We hope to see … that in D.C.”
Because many projects that stand to benefit could take years to develop, Spicer added that “you’re not going to see tomorrow a huge financial windfall.”
Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., agreed that local researchers also stand to benefit from the order.
“Maryland is home to some of the world’s leading medical research institutions, such as NIH and Johns Hopkins University,” Cardin said. “I am proud of the embryonic research doctors in Maryland. … These world-renowned doctors once again will know they are backed by the resources and the confidence of the federal government to move forward with their research here in the United States rather than overseas.”
Dr. Chi Dang, vice dean for research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said there were benefits from the president’s order that go beyond new access to funding.
He speculated that the executive order would foster “cross-pollination” between newly energized researchers in different fields.
“This will stimulate these investigators … to reach out to other investigators to write grants that will move the field,” he said.
Jeff Cossman, chief scientific officer for C-Path, a nonprofit based in Rockville that works with the Food and Drug Administration to promote personalized medicine, took a measured stance on the order’s potential benefits to research.
Cossman said that C-Path teams up with the FDA, as well as NIH, to combat diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s through the Coalition Against Major Diseases.
“The Parkinson’s community has fought long and hard to open up research on [embryonic] stem cells,” he said. “If [the order] is successful, it will profoundly affect … new treatments.
“It could be fantastic — that’s the great hope,” Cossman continued. “We just don’t know yet.”
