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Funding could drive stem cell scientists to other states, nations
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 23--The state of California will have 12 new stem cell institutes up and running by 2010, part of a $6 billion investment the state is making in the research. New York is investing $600 million over 11 years, Connecticut $100 million over 10 years and New Jersey is pouring $270 million into just five facilities.
Japan is investing $10 million in research at four institutions, focused on the cell reprogramming techniques developed by their own scientists and others in Madison, including stem cell pioneer James Thomson.
And China, which is investing $150 million on research involving reprogramming and other areas of stem cell work, may be poised to overtake everyone.
Although some, including Gov. Jim Doyle, have emphasized that the research is not a contest between states and nations but rather a quest to find therapies, funding may be driving a migration of scientists.
Stephen Minger, an American scientist who now heads a major stem cell lab at King's College London, said that Chinese scientists who once headed to the West are now going home to China.
He said the migrating scientists are sometimes called "sea turtles."
"I know labs that easily get millions of dollars a year," he said, explaining that he has traveled extensively in China. "The infrastructure they have is just tremendous. It matches anything I've seen. And it's everywhere I go."
He said that one researcher he knows used to get several million dollars a year from the National Institutes of Health; "he said it pales in significance to what he has now in China."
Doyle said Wisconsin is also pouring significant resources into stem cell research "and is going to be a major factor in stem cell research" for years to come.
To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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