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Stem cell ease could bring better business to Boston
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Today marks an important milestone in the Obama administration, as the president will reverse an order from the Bush administration in order to allow federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. For researchers in the bio-rich Cambridge area, this could bring a strong boost to the region's sagging economy.
Obama has promised to reverse the course of some of Bush's policies and has done so since taking office January 20. This may be the highest profile reversal of Bush-era policy yet. In 2001, then-President Bush enacted a policy that limited federal funding to biological researchers focusing on stem cells to work on the 60 cell lines in existance at that time. Since that time, expanding research has become a political hot topic. Bush argued that advances in science could continue to be made without destroying human embryos. Scientists and many others at large counterargued that Bush was out of touch and placing his own politics before science.
As Obama reverses this decision, sources say he will also vow that his administration will restore integrity to government funding of scientific projects, using scientific evidence to guide policy.
In the greater Boston area, this could mean business for the currently strong biomedical and biotechnical research industries. Adam Fraser, a Bioinformatics graduate from UMass Lowell commented that the roadblocks in such research are not as bad as people think. "This change in policy isn't necessarily going to produce the cures that are demanded", he remarked. "Nevertheless, despite former president Bush's tourniquet we have accomplished a lot in the past eight years, and have nothing but high hopes for the years to come."
Fraser's philosophy stems from being a graduate of a program at the forefront of the biomedical industry. Boston, housing laboratories for schools such as MIT, Tufts and UMass, has become a center for genetic research in recent years. With easement on funding restrictions, locals are hoping that the economic effects are felt in a positive way. Ability to fund more research would place a call to action for graduates of like programs, attract biomedical professionals, and feed residual industries. President Obama has a similar hope.
But with less restrictive action comes oppposition. Republican leaders are commenting that stem cell research is morally wrong, as an embryonic stem cell can be manipulated to become any cell or organ in the human body. Obama stands behind his philosophy of separation of science and politics. Despite today's advance being a landmark in his livelihood, Fraser remains objective: "there are still some among us who have a moral dilemma with the source of these stem cells, and I think we'd be reckless to keep pushing science without keeping these moral conversations on the table."
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