ARTICLE: New Jersey Passes Stem Cell Law
Scientists praise act that promotes stem cell research, criminalizes reproductive cloning
By Theresa Tamkins

January 8, 2004

When New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey signed a stem cell bill this week, the state became only the second in the
United States—after California—to pass legislation specifically outlawing reproductive cloning and promoting human
embryonic stem cell research. Scientists around the state hailed the law as a big step forward for their work.

“I am very excited about the pro-stem-cell-research bill signed by Governor McGreevey,” said Paola Leone, director of
the Cell and Gene Therapy Center at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)–Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School in Camden, NJ. The bill signals “the beginning of a new era of medical research in New Jersey,” she
said.

“I think everybody who works on human embryonic stem cells would welcome this type of legislation,” said Ihor
Lemischka, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, told The Scientist. “We don't have any current
plans to move into human embryonic stem cell arena, but if we did, which is certainly possible, I welcome the more
permissive climate this legislation provides,” said Lemischka, who now works mostly with murine embryonic stem cells
and hematopoietic stem cells.

The New Jersey bill permits research involving “human embryonic stem cells, human embryonic germ cells, and human adult
stem cells from any source, including somatic cell nuclear transplantation.” It makes cloning for the purposes of
creating a human being a first-degree crime punishable by up to 20 years in jail and requires that infertility patients
be informed that they can donate unused embryos for research purposes. Other states, including Massachusetts, are
considering similar legislation.

“I am very positive and think this will have an encouraging, positive effect on the entire field of stem cell research
in New Jersey, but also nationally,” said Ira Black, director of the Stem Cell Research Center at the UMDNJ–Robert Wood
Johnson Medical School. The New Jersey and California laws “will serve as models for the manner in which to further
research that will help in a wide variety of diseases, and in that sense the impact I'm sure will extend well beyond
any single state.”

While the bill was welcomed by researchers, most agreed that it may not affect the day-to-day research being conducted
by federally funded scientists, who must still select embryonic stem cell lines from a White House–approved list. The
New Jersey bill does not provide additional funds for stem cell research.

The bill “does some very important things, the first in my view is symbolic—it says New Jersey is hospitable to
intellectually honest scientific research, said David Beck, president of the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in
Camden. However, “it does not change anything with regard to federally funded organizations like, for example, the
Coriell Institute or any other organization that is academic, like Rutgers or UMDNJ, having access to embryonic stem
cells—those may be only the ones that are approved by or on the list the president issued,” he said.

Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies may benefit the most from the law, which could also spur more collaboration
between academia and industry. “This is encouraging and supportive of expanded academic and industrial collaboration,”
Black told The Scientist. “This will also encourage biotechnology startup companies to become involved, and needless to
say, these companies are acutely dependent on capitalization, which is discouraged by constraints placed on advancing
the research.”

The new law could also make it easier to obtain donated embryos for research. “Organizations that are not federally
funded, perhaps biotechnology or pharmaceutical or other companies, may well establish their own embryonic stem cells
lines,” said Beck. “In that regard, the bill makes explicitly clear that in vitro fertilization clinics and other
organizations that might have access to embryos or to fertilized eggs—of course, with the full consent and permission
of the owners or parents—can donate those for research and do so quite legally, which is one very important outcome I
think.”

The researchers welcomed specific legislation outlawing reproductive cloning. “I clearly, clearly agree with condemning
any type of reproductive cloning,” said Lemischka.

“We are all interested, I presume, in the emergence of regenerative medicine that will help us replace dead and dying
cells, whether it's due to stroke, Alzheimer's, myocardial infarction, or diabetes, and that we take prudent steps to
get that done. And in my view, this legislation will be of inestimable help in achieving that end, and it most
certainly does not in any way foster reproductive cloning,” said Black.

The new law may help New Jersey and the United States in general retain talented stem cell researchers, said Black.
“The supportive atmosphere this legislation creates can be expected to attract outstanding stem cell researchers from
other areas; consequently, there might be intra–United States brain drain from one state to another, but not
necessarily out of the country,” he said.

“Passing this legislation and the governor signing it took a great deal of courage because there was enormous
opposition,” Beck told The Scientist. “There was really relatively little to gain politically for doing it, but perhaps
a lot to lose politically, so it took a lot of courage to do this. I really congratulate the legislature; it was a very
important signal. It was a legislature that could see the big picture.”
Links for this article
“McGreevey signs landmark stem cell research act,” State of New Jersey press release, January 4, 2003.
http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/governor/njnewsline/view_article.pl?id=1668

Assembly, No. 2840, State of New Jersey, 210th Legislature, October 3, 2002
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2002/Bills/A3000/2840_R1.HTM

Paola Leone
http://www4.umdnj.edu/cgtcweb/faculty/

Ihor Lemischka
http://www.molbio.princeton.edu/research_facultymember.php?id=25

Stem Cell Research Center at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
http://rwjms.umdnj.edu/neuroscience/stem_cell.html

M. Goozner, “US stem cell researchers chafe,” The Scientist, December 5, 2003.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20031205/05/

David Beck
http://arginine.umdnj.edu/science/beckdp.html

P. Brickley, “Scientists seek passports to freer environments,” The Scientist, 15:36, August 20, 2001.
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/aug/prof_010820.html

SOURCE: Biomedcentral.com, UK / The Scientist
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040108/02

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