Washington State is considering state funding for regenerative medicine. How cool is that? You can read more about this effort in an opinion piece authored by Washington stem cell researcher, Professor Charles Murry.
There’s so much important stem cell research going on that federal funding, private and biotech investors, and philanthropy simply cannot fund it all so in many cases state funding can fulfill a crucial role as we’ve seen here in California with CIRM and in other states such as New York and Maryland.
Now Washington is working to make this a reality there too. Murry, the Director of the UW Medicine’s Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM), makes a convincing case for moving forward on this new state stem cell funding effort. He uses the example of regenerative medicine research on cardiac regeneration, but mentions other important areas too.
What is the UW looking for in the way of the funding and what will it do with it?
“the UW seeks $6 million in operating funds from the Legislature, starting with the next biennium, to recruit and retain top scientists, fund promising results at early stages, and train young researchers and clinicians.”
You can see the core faculty at the ISCRM here.
I grew up in Seattle and did my postdoc at the Hutch so I know how great the UW is and have met some of the wonderful stem cell researchers there.
I hope Washington State approves this and makes stem cell state funding there a regular occurrence as it would be a big boost to the ISCRM and their cool stem cell research.