NYT: 3 NYC Institutions to Get $50 Million for Stem Cell Research

[DeepModem Mom]

3 City Institutions to Get $50 Million for Stem Cell Research
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: May 23, 2005


As debates over embryonic stem cell research flare anew worldwide, a private foundation says it will give $50 million for such work to three Upper East Side medical institutions, a gift they say will position New York City as a player in an increasingly competitive field.

The Starr Foundation plans to give the money over three years to Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, which will collaborate on research projects. The recipients say it is among the 10 biggest gifts - and the second largest dedicated to research - ever received by any of the three institutions.

"We face a very serious threat of losing economically, losing our scientific leadership, and even losing our top scientists, as other countries and California race ahead in this crucial field," said Dr. Antonio M. Gotto, dean of Weill Cornell. "A gift like this helps keep New York and the United States competitive."

The three institutions each have scientists doing stem cell work in fields like the origins of leukemia or the development of skin, blood and nerve tissue, but they have very different approaches to medicine.

Rockefeller concentrates more on research into fundamental questions of biology and disease than on treating patients. Sloan-Kettering has the most specific focus, on cancer, in both research and clinical treatment. Weill, as a major medical school attached to a large teaching hospital, has the broadest focus, and it has one of the world's largest fertility clinics, ensuring a ready supply of frozen embryos that can yield stem cells....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/23/nyregion/23stem.html