The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded
12 academic and non-profit institutions on Wednesday with grants of some 271
million dollars to build stem-cell laboratories throughout the state, thus
promoting research on human embryonic stem cells.
“This will go a long way toward medical research that could save lives and
improve them for people with chronic diseases. But also, this kind of
public-private investment in a growing jobs sector is exactly the kind of good
news our economy needs right now,” California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said
in a statement, as quoted by the San Diego Union Tribune. He further praised California for investing three times more in
embryonic stem cell research than the National Institutes of Health.
The money was raised following a 2004 voter initiative strongly
supported by Schwarzenegger to issue bonds worth 3 billion to fund stem-cell
research, mainly into human embryonic stem cells. Through this initiative, the
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will provide a steady stream of
stem cell research funding to scientists in California over the next 10-12 years.
As for now, Stanford
University will receive the largest
grant, $43.6 million, while nearly $137 million will be divided between eight University of California campuses, with UC San
Francisco drawing the largest share at $34.9 million. The San Diego Consortium
for Regenerative Medicine will get $43 million, and the Buck Institute for Age
Research will get $20.5 million.
According to California Institute for Regenerative Medicine President
Dr. Alan Trounson, the new facilities will be geared towards speeding “the pace
of research toward clinical application. California
will be a landmark, it will be the epicenter of the new medicine,” he was
quoted by the San Jose Mercury News.
California joins New Jersey and Connecticut,
in its decision to accelerate the science with state funding. However, the
funding in the other two states is poor compared with the money spent on
embryonic stem cell research in California,
which became the leading funding agency for embryonic stem cell research in the
world, funding $157 million in grants by March 2007.
Stem cell research has been hailed for the potential to
revolutionize the future of medicine with the ability to regenerate damaged and
diseased organs.
On the other hand, stem cell research has long raised
controversy, with Pope Benedict XVI himself condemning the human cloning and
the “destruction of human embryos” because human being should not be
manipulated or treated as an instrument for experiments “under no
circumstances.”
His Holiness’ position against stem cell research is
sustained by various religious and ethical groups sustaining that human life is
sacred regardless of its stage of development. Thus the destruction of embryos
for scientific experiments amounts to mass killing of human lives, they argue.
On August 9, 2001, President George Bush decreed
that no further human embryonic stem cell lines could be derived using federal
funds, limiting federally funded research to cell lines already in existence.
On the other hand, many scientists believe it may be
possible one day to create colonies of such cells that can be used for
everything from growing replacement organs to creating treatments for diabetes,
Parkinson’s disease, heart disease and other diseases.
