Gov. to Propose $1B for Research

On Tuesday afternoon at the BIO conference in Boston, Governor Deval Patrick is scheduled to unveil a proposal to borrow $1 billion dollars for life sciences research in Massachusetts.

Legislative aides who were briefed on the plan on Monday said the Governor wants to borrow about $1 billion dollars to fund stem cell and other biotech research at area universities. Part of the plan would be the creation of an embryonic stem cell bank.

If this sounds familiar, a similar plan was floated last year by Patrick's competitor in the Democratic primary. Chris Gabrieli wanted to raise one billion dollars over ten years to compete in stem cell research; other states, notably California, have been getting into the game ever since 2001. That's when the Bush administration strictly limited financing for embryonic-stem cell research.