BIO news: United States of funding announcements

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced a $1 billion, 10-year investment in life science research here at BIO 2007 in Boston yesterday, aiming to regain the state's pre-eminent position as America's life science leader from rival California.

He also announced the establishment of the country's first centralised stem cell line repository, which will be open to both public and private researchers.

While the $1 billion pales into insignificance against the $3 billion California voters overwhelmingly agreed to last year purely for stem cell research, the money will be geared towards filling the gap left by the Bush Administration's funding freeze on the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In a televised address to the conference on Monday, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy bemoaned the drop in spending on basic life science research from the highs of the 1990s and said the NIH will receive a billion dollars less next year under the current administration.

(Kennedy was a late withdrawal from the conference, where he was scheduled to appear in person with Michael J Fox at the keynote luncheon. Instead, he was asked by President Bush to fly to Belfast to witness the historic power-sharing agreement between the Democratic Unionists' Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness.)

Governor Patrick's package includes a competitive grant program during the current downturn in federal support to sustain key programs in the state.

"Our collective success during the 1998-2003 period when the NIH budget doubled from $14 billion to $28 billion only solidified Massachusetts' dominance in the area of biomedical research," Patrick said. "However, the subsequent four years of flat funding since 2003 has caused a 13 per cent loss of funding power by NIH and a 35 per cent reduction in support for clinical trials."

He also announced the establishment of a centralised repository for new stem cell lines, the Massachusetts Stem Cell Bank. The stem cell lines will be available to both public and private researchers. Participants include Boston University, Brigham & Women's, Children's Hospital, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, the University of Massachusetts.

One of Boston's favourite sons, Nobel Laureate Craig Mello, who is lauded on University of Massachusetts TV commercials here, said scientific innovation and cutting-edge research help set Massachusetts apart in the eyes of the life sciences and greater scientific community.

"Today's announcement of this significant, new state funding is an important signal that the opportunities to do cutting-edge research in this state are expanding," he said.