A number of economic and commercial groups have banded together to support stem cell research in the state of Wisconsin. Gov. Jim Doyle announced the formation of the coalition at a press conference Wednesday in Fitchburg.

Doyle asked the Republican-led state legislature to refrain from passing bills that restrict or criminalize such research at state institutions, specifically the University of Wisconsin.

Members of the Wisconsin Coalition to Support Stem Cell Research, as it will be called, were brought together by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit organization, which is the exclusive patent brokering group for the UW and holds the patent on human embryonic stem cells.

“We’ve sent stem cells to more than 120 researchers around the world, and there is another corporation that is licensed under us to send stem cells out,” said Andrew Cohn, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Association. “All of these organizations have joined together to say that the legislature should not pass any laws to prevent this kind of research.”

Cohn said that the most important and prestigious economic and commercial groups joined the Coalition because they recognized the fantastic economic potential that stem cell research represents to Wisconsin.

Cohn also said that Wisconsin had the right infrastructure in place to become a bastion for groundbreaking stem cell experimentation, with high concentrations of UW scientists who are experts in the field. Dr. James Thomson, who discovered human embryonic stem cells and has been on the cover of Science and Time magazines, is currently working in UW labs.

Thomson was on hand to reinforce the possibility of Wisconsin becoming a stem cell frontier.

“It’s important for the scientists working in laboratories to know that political leaders understand and support their efforts to find treatments and cures for the world’s most devastating diseases,” Thomson said. “Wisconsin has a real opportunity to be a world leader in this research. Legislation that restricts stem cell research sends a message to scientists and biotech companies that they are not welcome in Wisconsin.”

Doyle said that by taking such actions the Legislature could create and impression of a hostile environment for biotechnology researchers, investors and entrepreneurs looking to set up shop in Wisconsin.

Cohn said current bills, Assembly bill 104 and Senate bill 45, would ban stem cell research and that this was not the first time such legislation has been introduced.
“Last session a bill was on the floor that would’ve essentially made dozens of scientists felons,” Cohn said.

Republican legislators say current bills have been misconstrued as banning UW research when only banning human cloning in the state. Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives squabbled over whether or not a similar bill, passed in March, would ban only cloning or extend to stem cell research.

Cohn said the most important member of the Coalition could prove to be the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, which has a powerful lobby in state legislature.

“Research and scientific advances will help broaden our economic base to create high- paying, technology-based jobs,” said Mike Shoys, vice president of the Manufacturers and Commerce.

Doyle indicated that he would veto any bill he felt would limit stem cell research in the state were it to be passed.