Acting Gov. Richard Codey is expected to name resigning Gov. Jim McGreevey to head the state’s Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey in a few months, sources said.
McGreevey’s resignation takes effect on Nov. 15, at which time Senate President Codey will take over as acting governor. He is expected to name McGreevey to head the institute at some point before the end of the year.
McGreevey established the institute last May as a joint effort between the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers University, to be funded through a public-private partnership. In setting up this year’s budget, McGreevey set aside $9.5 million to kick off the institute.Although he made no comment on the appointment, McGreevey issued a statement for this story saying he believed the institute provided “a rare opportunity” to fight a variety of diseases, and by providing public money through the state budget, “We have powered up the jets for a faster takeoff to find cures,” he said.
Two weeks ago, McGreevey met with former U.S. Attorney Janet Reno and a variety of scientists asking the federal government to lift its ban on funding of embryonic stem cell research, which is seen as the most promising avenue into finding cures.
Stem cell research is controversial because it uses the cells of discarded human embryos created for in vitro fertilization, which were not used in the end. Numerous conservative groups say these embryos constitute the earliest form of human life, even when they don’t come from eggs fertilized in a woman’s body. These groups also believe that allowing studies on human embryos would breach an important barrier.
“Stem cell research hold the potential to solve the mysteries of devastating medical conditions like heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury and other diseases,” McGreevey said.
New Jersey is among three states that permit such research. McGreevey said, “If we are going to be able to realize the hope and potential of stem cell research, it will take more than the actions of a few states.”
If McGreevey gets named to head the institute as expected, he will be leading the movement he started as governor of the first state in the United States to give public financial resources to the research. He will likely become much more active in bringing together the academic and private sectors.
New Jersey, McGreevey noted, has more scientists, engineers and technicians per capita that any other state, and the state’s biotech cluster is one of the top five in the nation, generating $1 billion in 2002, with more than 120 businesses and 8,000 employees. He also noted that New Jersey’s pharmaceutical companies developed more than one third of the new medicines the FDA approved in 2002, and that our state alone already accounts for nearly one quarter of all research and development dollars spent in the nation by pharmaceutical companies.
“Our state is the natural place for this entity to blossom,” McGreevey said earlier this year. “We have the unique combination of pharmaceutical infrastructure, biomedical research, university expertise and political will necessary to advance stem cell research to the benefit of patients and families throughout the world. The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey will augment the presence of our industry leaders, attract new companies to a critical sector of our state’s economy, and promote a forward-looking agenda to develop new medicines and therapies.”
Paul J. Byrne, the chairman of Right to Hope, which has been instrumental in the successful lobbying of state legislators to support embryonic stem cell research, said he was saddened by the events that led to McGreevey’s resignation, and he believed the future appointment would benefit people throughout the nation.
“Long after this week of sorrow has passed, tens of millions will express their gratitude and respect for what he has done for embryonic stem cell research,” Byrne said.
Hoboken Councilman Tony Soares, who suffers from dwarfism, said he would offer his services in the advertising industry to McGreevey for the institute. Soares is an associate creative director for a Manhattan-based advertising company.
“While I don’t agree with everything Jim McGreevey has done, his work in stem cell research is the best thing he ever did,” Soares said.