More News

Delays ahead for state stem cell research

Governor hasn’t named his selections to commission that oversees the money

Friday, June 30, 2006

Maryland’s groundbreaking stem-cell initiative is getting off to a slow start — thanks to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s tardiness in appointing four members to the new commission charged with managing state funds for researchers.

The delay troubles Del. Samuel I. ‘‘Sandy” Rosenberg, who introduced the House version of the stem cell funding bill in January.

‘‘He could have appointed the commission by now and it would be set to go by July 1,” said Rosenberg (D-Dist. 41) of Baltimore. ‘‘Technically you can’t do anything until next week, but this sets things back.”

Three members of the 15-member commission were named Thursday by the University System of Maryland. Only Ehrlich’s remain to be named.

Rosenberg said he is disappointed that by the time projects are funded, there may not ‘‘be something to show the legislature in order to increase the funding next year.” Ehrlich’s health care director, Craig Williams, promised him during the special session earlier this month ‘‘that the governor is eager to get the appointees in place,” Rosenberg said. Williams did not return calls.

Ehrlich, speaking Thursday at Digene Corp. in Gaithersburg, said he would name his appointees ‘‘very soon, very soon.”

The delay in naming the committee could create a domino effect: Until all members are appointed, the commission cannot meet to set proposal parameters, such as deadlines and project funding.

That means Maryland is jeopardizing its hard-fought leadership in stem cell funding, Rosenberg said, and is losing the momentum it grabbed by passing the historic legislation.

Susan O’Brien, a spokeswoman for Maryland Families for Stem Cell Research, added that any delay could slow down new treatments or cures for thousands of Marylanders with diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and paralysis.

‘‘I know one thing,” she said. ‘‘Everyone in the advocacy community is eager. We say delayed is denied. That is sort of the mantra on Capitol Hill, too. And in Maryland, a year passed without a bill passing. And now we are passing the deadline for setting it up.”

A stem cell research funding bill died in 2005.

‘‘I find it troubling that the governor has a commercial saying he was in favor of stem cell research but he has not completed the commission,” O’Brien said.

The first television ad from Ehrlich’s re-election campaign touts his support for stem cell research funding.

‘‘This money has to be distributed if we are going to get more money for this in the next fiscal year,” O’Brien said. ‘‘This means we will have to work so very hard to convince people that stem cell money should be there in 2008, unless we can show that it is going to fund the best scientific projects.”

Ehrlich spokesman Henry P. Fawell responded: ‘‘The governor makes tens of thousands of appointments. The governor is fully supportive of this effort and he is considering incredibly talented people. The governor is taking his time in making his choices in order to make the right choices.”

The university system’s appointments were delayed because of a mixup in Chancellor William E. Kirwan’s office.

‘‘We are late because we originally thought the appointments should go to the governor’s office, but they actually need to go to Tedco,” explained Kathleen M. Ryan, Kirwan’s chief of staff.

Tedco, or the Maryland Technology Development Corp., an independent entity created by the legislature in 1998, will administer the funding.

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Act of 2006, which Ehrlich signed April 6, appropriates $15 million for private and university researchers in its first year, which begins Saturday. The law made Maryland one of only a handful of states to fund embryonic stem cell research. It was hotly debated for two years because some research requires the destruction of a human embryo.

Four members of the Stem Cell Commission are to be appointed by the governor, three by the University System of Maryland, three by Johns Hopkins University and four by the General Assembly. The attorney general or his designee will also be on the commission. Johns Hopkins and the legislature named their appointees several weeks ago.

Paul Fishman, professor of neuroscience at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, suggested that only one meeting will be needed to get things started.

‘‘As soon as they [the commission] decide to submit an RFA, or request for applications, for research proposals, they will quickly be able to determine a lot of the logistics, such as how long the proposals should be, the day in which they will start accepting, etc.,” he said in May.

Fishman said a letter of intent could be required from those submitting proposals, which in turn could affect who the commission appoints to an independent committee to review and rank proposals based on guidelines set by the commission.

But judging by a similar proposal review process at the National Institutes of Health, some research leaders say it will take 60 to 90 days to award the money.

Ehrlich originally proposed $20 million for stem cell research and $13.5 million for a research building for regenerative research in Baltimore. The final bill contained $15 million for research and $1.5 million for the building, Fawell said.

Renée Winsky, Tedco’s executive director, said in early May that her organization was prepared to disburse the money.

‘‘If the commissioners are appointed next week and sworn in, Tedco would be ready to serve them,” Winsky said. ‘‘From an administrative standpoint, we are ready to go. Our accounting process is in place and we already have an online process for funding.”

The Senate appointees named May 25 are Brenda Crabbs as a patient advocate representative and Linda Powers as a biotechnology representative. The House appointees are John Kellerman as a patient advocate member and Gloria Marrow as a biotechnology member.

About a month ago, Johns Hopkins University submitted its three appointees to Tedco, said Audrey Huang, director of basic science communications for Johns Hopkins Medicine, who did not identify them.

‘‘Now we are waiting for the next step,” she said Thursday.

The university system appointees are Steven Salzberg, director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park; Suzanne Ostrand-Rosenberg, professor of biological sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Karen Rothenberg, dean and Marjorie Cook professor of law at the University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore.