Maryland's Commitment to Advancing Stem Cell Research

Incredible human breakthroughs in science are helping to reawaken a commitment all across the world to protecting the dignity of every individual. They are igniting a newfound embrace of our shared responsibility to advance the common good. They are instilling a sense in our common humanity that there is a unity to spirit and matter and that the things we do in this lifetime matter.

And they are affirming a higher truth, which proclaims that a society's greatness derives not from its ability to drop smart bombs on its enemies, but in the smart, compassionate, helping hands it is able to extend to our common humanity. The proliferation of what Dr. Jeffrey Sachs calls "weapons of mass salvation."

Stem cell research carries with it some of the greatest potential in humanity's salvation arsenal.

Last week, we announced that Maryland was entering into a new partnership with the State of California to collaborate on stem cell projects, with the goal of using our combined effort to advance this emerging technology even further.

At the same time, we are working to step up our coordination with our federal partners, now that we finally have a President in Barack Obama who believes in science and is committed to unlocking the healing potential we see in new scientific frontiers. To further our collaborative efforts, among other things, we are readjusting our own stem cell projects here in Maryland so that we complement the federal initiatives that are currently underway, rather than duplicating them.

We've invested $56 million in our state stem cell research fund - even in difficult times - and we've done so by sending every dollar directly to our labs and researchers - the people who are working every day in pursuit of breakthroughs, healing and discovery.

While our current fiscal climate hasn't given us the flexibility to do quite as much as we would like to do - and hope to do in better economic times - the investments we have made are significant: currently supporting 141 Stem Cell Research grants, involving more than 350 researchers, physicians, lab technicians, and other personnel, on top of an estimated 700 researchers who are indirectly funded at labs supporting these grants.

In Maryland, our commitment to stem cell research is part of our BioMaryland 2020 initiative, the largest investment any state has committed to the life sciences. Just this month we opened the Maryland Biotechnology Center to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, and we are putting a renewed priority on supporting the dreams of emerging bio-entrepreneurs. Whether it is our innovative bioinvestor tax credit, or our 23 technology incubators - one-third of which are biolab capable - we understand the challenges and unique needs of this industry because we understand the promise.

There are more than 400 bioscience companies doing business in Maryland, employing more than 26,000 people.

The Milken Institute ranks our bioscience assets among the highest in America. We lead the nation in the investments we make in the skills, talents, and ingenuity of our people - and as a return on these investments we have what Education Week magazine says are the best public schools in America, fueling one of the nation's most highly skilled workforces.

We rank first in per capita biomedical and health services workers. We have the highest percentage of doctoral scientists and engineers of any workforce in America. And we also have the second highest percentage of professional and technical workers.

Marylanders and the companies for which they work are involved in cutting-edge biopharmaceutical discovery. They create gene-based diagnostics, they work to integrate biologics and nanotechnology into medical devices, and they are making revolutionary advances with new approaches to vaccine development.

The next great discovery or breakthrough may not come overnight and may not take the form we had expected. But I believe in the possibility of progress, and in the possibility and power of seeking the unforeseen.

We live in some truly extraordinary times; times marked both by tremendous peril and by tremendous possibility - a point in our human existence when our own creativity and imagination have expanded the outer bounds of human achievement and potential as never before, and by exponents never imagined.

Stem cell research is such a promising part of this new frontier - carrying with it the potential to heal our neighbors not just in our own states and countries, but across our world.

Follow Gov. Martin O'Malley on Twitter: www.twitter.com/governoromalley

Comments

[mommaserene]

I am so glad to see that politicians aren't all afraid to back stem cell research. It is such a vital part of our efforts to help stem disease. My mom has Multiple Sclerosis, and they say it may be possible to regrow the myelin sheaths that MS eats away at. Oh, how wonderful that would be! One of the moms in my son's cub scout troop also has MS. She's been fundraising for a little over a year so she can afford to go to Costa Rica for stem cell treatment. That's just not right. The treatment will cost her $35,000, not to mention the cost to travel to Costa Rica and stay there during the treatment. We need to get a move on with the research here in the states. This is just the first step.

[edgraham]

Well said, you "Wild Colonial Boy."

It is amazing that people who oppose research don't understand how it works, and mostly echo the political lies that they read. Science is apolitical. The right doesn't understand that.

[Nosepuede]

Not so straightforward. BHO has prohibited funding for ASC research while funding ESC research. So the far left is just as political in this matter.

[Jaywalkker]

I'm glad we're moving forward with stem cell research. This particular local story hit it home for me how scientifically backward we are, from March of '09:

Article about a fundraiser to send a DWI victim to China to receive experimental stem cell treatment.
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090310_mo_stemtreatment.22663098.html

[RevBookburn]

Thank you for being on the side of science, medicine, and the well-being of the people of Maryland. Hopefully you will not be threatened or harrassed by dangerous unstable fundamentalist cultists.

[satanlite]

When will the Evangelical Right start showing up in Maryland for protests? Can't be too long from now. The gov just fired a flare.

[SimJack]

One if by land, two if by stem cell.

[Leatherhelmet]

You could use state money to do stem cell research when Bush was president. You could use private money. Your political hyperbole is pointless and ridiculous.

There is no reason to use federal funds for this research. The taxpayer does not need the additional burden in these difficult times.

I think it is great you are researching stem cell science. Embryonic stem cell research has not yielded much yet. Science is awesome but to suggest only Obama believed in science is a load of crap.

[satanlite]

Right. Let private corporations develop it so they can be free to charge whatever they see fit for treatments. I'm sure they'd let the poor afford it, right?

[SimJack]

ESC research isn't going to yield much unless the studies are funded. So, we should just mothball the NIH, which happens to be in MD by the way, and employs tens of thousands of the worlds top researchers? Is that your contribution to getting things back on track? Not to mention that MD is one of the premier biotech hotspots in the world. If you're concerned about additional burdens to the taxpayer, then fight to claw back money from the juvenile delinquents that just pulled of the greatest heist in human history and request an end to a couple of illegal wars while your at it - that will help put some real money in the bank.

[middlemanusa]

"You could use state money to do stem cell research when Bush was president."

But you sure couldn't use federal funds, which is the point that the Gov is making. There are lots of reasons to use federal funding for this emerging new science and the one reason that Bush denied federal funds has nothing to do with economic hard times or how much stem cell research has yeilded. I believe it had to do with where the stem cells are coming from.

[bluerthanblue15]

"You could use state money to do stem cell research when Bush was president. You could use private money. Your political hyperbole is pointless and ridiculous.

"There is no reason to use federal funds for this research. The taxpayer does not need the additional burden in these difficult times.

I think it is great you are researching stem cell science. Embryonic stem cell research has not yielded much yet. Science is awesome but to suggest only Obama believed in science is a load of crap."

Gee, I felt the exact same way about the Iraq war and my taxes to support it ... and it was illegal at that!

Embryonic stem cell research and its application holds the greatest promise precisely because of its flexible nature and thus holding far more potential for its potential cures.

An 'a load of crap'?? How was Bush a proponent of science during the past administration? In fact how are his right wing fanatics proponents of science when they hold the strongest and most erroneous beliefs about science (famously, the creationists) and push for same in schools as we speak???

[stemcellblogger]

Yes, but he is backing embryonic, not adult/repair.
EMBRYONIC (ESC) vs ADULT/REPAIR stem cells (RSC)...What's the difference?
EMBRYONIC treatments have caused tumors.
ADULT/REPAIR stem cells NEVER have.

Thousands of RSC treatments have been performed with virtually no side effects & resulting in significant improvements to the patient’s health. There are 2,572 "stem cell" clinical trials results at clinicaltrials.gov There are 1,160,000 "stem cell" scholarly papers on google. Evidence supports that the risk of RSC treatments are about the same as the risks associated with drawing blood. (Standard safe practice of lab protocols removes these risks almost entirely.)

To sum up:
ESC = embryonic stem cell
•can currently treat zero diseases
•lotsa problems (tumors, rejection, controversy, etc)
•comes from embryos

ASC = adult stem cell
•used in bone marrow transplants for 40 years
•can currently treat 130+ diseases
•~zero problems (virtually zero side effects)
•comes from blood, umbilical cords, marrow, fat, nose, breast milk, menstruation, etc etc etc

via http://repairstemcell.wordpress.com

[middlemanusa]

ASC = adult stem cell
-cannot treat any of the diseases that embryonic stem cell researchers are working on

You compare the two as if they are the same, only one is safer. But the potential of stem cell research goes well beyond what we already know we can do with ASC.

[Nosepuede]

The fact is that BHO prohibited funding for ASC when he established funding for ESC. Thus the politics continue and this hiding behind supporting science is a fraudulent disgrace.

[Jaywalkker]

The Bush edict limited useable stem cell strains to those that had been cultured under new methodology and were virtually useless. Frozen for future study but beyond recovery for experimental purposes. Many cultures were reproduced so many times that they were no longer viable. Stem cell "research," except in CA, has mostly been using cells that were dead. Its like saying a biologist gathered adequate knowledge from a stuffed animal.

Comparing advancements as you have is a non-starter.

[Godweiser]

Now we have to make sure that there is universal access to these medical advances. I hope that Maryland will be on the front line of that as well. i certainly intend to keep yelling for it.

[PlaceboStudman]

Thank you, governor. And thank you too, to all those in Maryland and across the country who are working in the biosciences, who might one day see the promise fulfilled that stem cell research and other biomedical research provides.