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Doyle talks stem cells on U.K. trip

Gov. Jim Doyle took an early stop on his trip to the United Kingdom Thursday to drum up support for an upcoming Madison event.

Doyle met with one of Britain’s top stem cell researchers as part of a larger plan to foster strong ties between stem cell researchers in the U.K. and Wisconsin.

Stephen Minger, a prominent British stem cell researcher and professor at London’s King College, hosted the governor.

Thursday’s conference was a precursor to the World Stem Cell Summit, a gathering of top stem cell researchers, scientists and legal experts that will take place in Madison Sept. 22 and 23 of this year.

Tim Kamp, associate professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health and one of the chief organizers of the event, said the summit will be a great benefit to Wisconsin and will provide a good scientific forum to discuss stem cell research.

“The meeting will highlight Wisconsin’s strengths in stem cell research,” Kamp said. “It will foster our connections with partners from around the world and help colleagues collaborate on therapies and research.”

Doyle spokesperson Lee Sensenbrenner said the benefits of holding the summit in Wisconsin would be enormous to the state.

“This summit will encourage tremendous economic and scientific activity,” he said. “Madison was chosen over some of the top cities of the world to host the summit, so this is a great success for the university and the state.”

Doyle’s goal for Wisconsin is to have a 10 percent market share in the stem cell research market by 2025. Kamp said this goal may be feasible but said such predictions are difficult to make.

“It’s a challenge to say whether or not Wisconsin will continue to be at the forefront,” Kamp said. “We have no idea what will be out there in terms of technology in 2025, given the current pace of discovery.”

The summit marks the 10th anniversary of UW professor James Thomson’s breakthrough stem cell discovery, in which he and a team of researchers successfully isolated and cultivated an embryonic stem cell line.

On the trip, which was funded through the Departments of Commerce, Transportation and the governor’s office, Doyle is also scheduled to talk about climate change and other world environmental issues.

The meeting, which took place in London, is one stop on a trip that intends to plant the seeds of economic and scientific cooperation between Wisconsin and the British Isles.