Laura
02-01-2010, 09:22 AM
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=895103&TextPage=1#ixzz0e9eWHEig
Budget knife cuts spine research
Study is at a critical point as disabled join in fight for $6.7M
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Saturday, January 30, 2010
EAST GREENBUSH -- Stem-cell biologist Sally Temple was the toast of New York after receiving international acclaim as a recipient of a 2008 MacArthur "genius" grant for promising research into treating spinal cord injuries.
Today, she's fighting alongside quadriplegics to restore $6.7 million in state funding for spinal cord research that Gov. David Paterson cut in his proposed budget.
"That funding was absolutely crucial to get us to the point. We need it desperately," said Temple, who runs the not-for-profit New York Neural Stem Cell Institute on the University at Albany's East Campus.
Her lab receives more than $300,000, or roughly 20 percent of its budget, in grants from the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program. Funding for the program, administered by the state Department of Health, is generated by a surcharge on penalties for traffic violations. More than $54 million in research grants have been awarded since 1998.
"Our whole mission has been to find a cure for spinal cord injury. We're going to fight this budget cut," said Paul Richter, of Albany, a retired state trooper who was shot in the neck in Lake Placid in 1973 after encountering two armed robbers on a routine traffic stop. Paralyzed from the neck down for six months, he regained the ability to walk with a leg brace and a cane after extensive rehabilitation.
Richter became a tireless advocate, enlisted the late actor Christopher Reeve and led a lobbying effort that created the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program through legislation that Gov. George Pataki signed 11 years ago.
Richter has been rallying support and organizing a letter-writing campaign in advance of a public hearing on the budget on Feb. 9.
"This is another one of those difficult cuts and is part of the reality of closing a $7.4 billion budget deficit," said Jessica Bassett, a spokeswoman for the state Division of the Budget. "We're not saying this is not a worthy program. It's a budget of hard choices across all areas."
"I'm in a wheelchair 24/7 and I want to walk some day. Taking away this research funding takes away my hope of ever getting out of this chair," said Mike DiScipio, 39, of Colonie, a quadriplegic paralyzed from the chest down. He broke his neck in 1999 after diving into his backyard swimming pool during a party celebrating his son's Little League championship.
"I realize we have a large budget deficit, but I hope the governor and the legislators are open-minded and will listen to our concerns," DiScipio said.
Temple has worked for more than 20 years with neural stem cells taken from the brains of laboratory mice to try to unlock the mysteries of degenerative illnesses that strike millions of Americans each year, including Parkinson's disease and macular degeneration, in addition to spinal cord injuries.
There are 250,000 Americans with spinal cord injuries, with 11,000 new injuries occurring each year. The average age is 31, and the average lifetime costs for quadriplegics injured at age 25 is $1.35 million, according to the University of Alabama National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center.
Funding Temple's lab received for the past eight years through the state spinal cord industry research program helped build the foundation for development of a potential new drug for spinal cord injury treatment "still in the early days."
The gap that this program filled in the long, challenging middle section of the biotech research pipeline is known as "the valley of death," Temple said.
"The beginning period of research, or recovery, is funded by NIH. At the end stage of the pipeline, Big Pharma comes in to fund drugs that have the potential to make a profit. But many promising drugs wither on the vine in that middle period due to lack of funding," she said.
Layoffs at her lab, which employs 40, are possible if the budget cut isn't restored. A spinal cord injury researcher who met with Temple and was going to relocate his lab to New York because of the funding stream will rethink the decision if the program is cut.
"That funding seeds investment. It's like cutting off an economic engine," Temple said.
Budget knife cuts spine research
Study is at a critical point as disabled join in fight for $6.7M
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Saturday, January 30, 2010
EAST GREENBUSH -- Stem-cell biologist Sally Temple was the toast of New York after receiving international acclaim as a recipient of a 2008 MacArthur "genius" grant for promising research into treating spinal cord injuries.
Today, she's fighting alongside quadriplegics to restore $6.7 million in state funding for spinal cord research that Gov. David Paterson cut in his proposed budget.
"That funding was absolutely crucial to get us to the point. We need it desperately," said Temple, who runs the not-for-profit New York Neural Stem Cell Institute on the University at Albany's East Campus.
Her lab receives more than $300,000, or roughly 20 percent of its budget, in grants from the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program. Funding for the program, administered by the state Department of Health, is generated by a surcharge on penalties for traffic violations. More than $54 million in research grants have been awarded since 1998.
"Our whole mission has been to find a cure for spinal cord injury. We're going to fight this budget cut," said Paul Richter, of Albany, a retired state trooper who was shot in the neck in Lake Placid in 1973 after encountering two armed robbers on a routine traffic stop. Paralyzed from the neck down for six months, he regained the ability to walk with a leg brace and a cane after extensive rehabilitation.
Richter became a tireless advocate, enlisted the late actor Christopher Reeve and led a lobbying effort that created the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program through legislation that Gov. George Pataki signed 11 years ago.
Richter has been rallying support and organizing a letter-writing campaign in advance of a public hearing on the budget on Feb. 9.
"This is another one of those difficult cuts and is part of the reality of closing a $7.4 billion budget deficit," said Jessica Bassett, a spokeswoman for the state Division of the Budget. "We're not saying this is not a worthy program. It's a budget of hard choices across all areas."
"I'm in a wheelchair 24/7 and I want to walk some day. Taking away this research funding takes away my hope of ever getting out of this chair," said Mike DiScipio, 39, of Colonie, a quadriplegic paralyzed from the chest down. He broke his neck in 1999 after diving into his backyard swimming pool during a party celebrating his son's Little League championship.
"I realize we have a large budget deficit, but I hope the governor and the legislators are open-minded and will listen to our concerns," DiScipio said.
Temple has worked for more than 20 years with neural stem cells taken from the brains of laboratory mice to try to unlock the mysteries of degenerative illnesses that strike millions of Americans each year, including Parkinson's disease and macular degeneration, in addition to spinal cord injuries.
There are 250,000 Americans with spinal cord injuries, with 11,000 new injuries occurring each year. The average age is 31, and the average lifetime costs for quadriplegics injured at age 25 is $1.35 million, according to the University of Alabama National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center.
Funding Temple's lab received for the past eight years through the state spinal cord industry research program helped build the foundation for development of a potential new drug for spinal cord injury treatment "still in the early days."
The gap that this program filled in the long, challenging middle section of the biotech research pipeline is known as "the valley of death," Temple said.
"The beginning period of research, or recovery, is funded by NIH. At the end stage of the pipeline, Big Pharma comes in to fund drugs that have the potential to make a profit. But many promising drugs wither on the vine in that middle period due to lack of funding," she said.
Layoffs at her lab, which employs 40, are possible if the budget cut isn't restored. A spinal cord injury researcher who met with Temple and was going to relocate his lab to New York because of the funding stream will rethink the decision if the program is cut.
"That funding seeds investment. It's like cutting off an economic engine," Temple said.