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FROM: The Record (Bergen County, NJ) May 13, 2004 Thursday All Editions SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A03 HEADLINE: New institute a gain for stem-cell research; McGreevey establishes first center to receive public funds BYLINE: By LINDY WASHBURN, STAFF WRITER, North Jersey Media Group New Jersey entered the race for star scientists in the fast-growing field of stem-cell research on Wednesday, when Governor McGreevey officially created the Stem Cell Research Institute of New Jersey and committed $6.5 million to it. The money will allow the state to start recruiting top talent in an area of medicine whose potential for curing disease prompts even the most seasoned scientists to use words like "miraculous." "Scientists are saying things we would have been embarrassed to say just a few years ago," said Dr. Darwin J. Prockop, director of the Center for Gene Therapy at Tulane University in New Orleans. Stem cells, he told some 250 health professionals, scientists, business leaders, and patients at a forum in New Brunswick, "are magical cells in every way." Prockop may be to stem-cell scientists what A-Rod is to baseball infielders. Invited to serve as the lead speaker at the conference, hosted by McGreevey and state Health Commissioner Clifton R. Lacy, he is a key target of New Jersey's recruitment efforts, Lacy said privately afterwards. The governor himself issued a public invitation. "We want to build a state-of-the-art facility and recruit world-class talent," McGreevey said Wednesday. "Did you hear that, Dr. Prockop?" Stem cells can be harvested from embryos, bone marrow, and umbilical cords. They can be implanted in diseased or dysfunctional areas of the body and develop into healthy, specialized cells. Studies in children with "brittle bone" disease have shown "miraculous" cures, said Prockop. The list of diseases and conditions for which stem-cell treatment holds promise grows almost daily - and now includes Parkinson's, diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer, and traumatic brain injury. New research by Dr. Ira Black, director of the stem-cell research center at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, showed that stem cells grew into healthy neurons in the brain. Several states are now competing for top scientists. In Minnesota, a special professorship supported by more than $8 million in endowments was created to attract a stem-cell researcher who specializes in heart disease. That state also created tax-free zones for biotech companies. Wisconsin is also paying scientists' salaries. And some California voters are trying to place an initiative on the ballot that would commit the state to $300 million annually on such research. New Jersey is the first state to promise public funds to the research, in direct contrast to federal policy. It is only the second, after California, to legalize stem-cell research. Other states have gone in the opposite direction, banning certain types of the research. Two years ago, President Bush limited federal dollars to research on those lines of stem cells that had already been harvested from human embryos at that time. The Catholic church and some opponents of abortion say the use of stem cells derived from human embryos is akin to "farming" humans. About two dozen protestors carried placards outside the building where the forum was held Wednesday Such opposition has prompted some researchers to move to Europe and Japan, said Dr. Wise Young, director of the W.-M. Keck Center for collaborative neuroscience at Rutgers. "Due to the White House decision, America has lost its leadership," he said. "Even though American scientists discovered stem cells, we are wrestling with one arm behind our backs." Nationally, there are signs of erosion in conservative support for Bush's position. Nancy Reagan, speaking to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation last weekend, made a plea for stem-cell research. "I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this," she said. Dozens of Republicans signed a recent House letter asking Bush to relax the restrictions. "I feel strongly that New Jersey is very much on the right course," McGreevey said. As the new institute recruits researchers, "what we have that other states don't have, is a law that allows all kinds of stem-cell research to be done here," said Sherrie Preische, director of the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology. "And we have the heart of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry." Creation of the institute "opens the N.J. landscape to be the home of cutting-edge therapies," said Debbie Hart, president of the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey. An agreement creating the institute was signed by McGreevey at the forum. The institute is expected to attract more than $20 million in other donations in the first five years. It will be located in New Brunswick, within a block or two of the hospital, to allow doctors to test research on patients. The money for the institute is included in McGreevey's proposed budget, which has not yet been approved by the state Legislature. The governor said he was confident the funds would be appropriated. During the forum, Dennis Benigno, a Clifton man whose son Dennis John Benigno was struck by a car at 15 and became completely disabled by a brain injury, spoke emotionally about New Jersey's support for this area of science. "This institute offers a renewed sense of hope that the son we once knew will come back to us," he said of his son, who is now 35. "Nothing McGreevey has done is better than what he does today. This should be his legacy." 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