Governor Jon S. Corzine addressed a crowd of nearly 400 gathered to break ground for the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. "We are doing something really important here today. This is about humanity writ large,” Corzine said at the October 23 ceremony.
The stem cell institute will occupy five floors of an 18-story tower will be built on Little Albany Street in downtown New Brunswick, across the street from the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Construction costs of $150 million will be drawn from $270 million included in legislation signed into law in December 2006. This enabling legislation also will fund other New Jersey stem cell research endeavors in Newark and Camden.
Rutgers Executive Vice President Philip Furmanski explained that the institute, to be jointly operated by Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, will focus on translational research. “What we do here will bridge the gap between the laboratory and patients,” Furmanski said.
The institute has been named the Christopher Reeve Pavilion to honor the late actor and stem cell research advocate who was paralyzed in a horseback riding accident. His brother Benjamin, an attorney living in Massachusetts, told the audience that Christopher would be most grateful for the work that will be done here. “The motto of the Reeve foundation is ‘Move Forward,’ and this is forward,” he said emphatically.
State Assembly Deputy Speaker Neil Cohen said that the facility “will shine as a beacon of hope to people across New Jersey and around the world who are suffering from debilitating diseases and injuries.”
The governor, State Senate President Richard Codey, and the other speakers unanimously urged listeners to support the New Jersey Stem Cell Research Bond Act referendum, which will appear as question No. 2 on the November 6 ballot. If the voters approve, the act would authorize a $450 million bond issue that would fund stem cell research grants to eligible institutions over a 10-year period.
A newly revised report issued October 22 [PDF] by Joseph Seneca and Will Irving of Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy extolled the economic benefits that would be reaped from investment in stem cell research.
“Based on the revised public expenditures of $720 million [the prior $270 million plus the proposed $450 million], it is estimated that the stem cell research initiative will have total economic benefits in New Jersey of almost $2.2 billion, will result in the creation of almost 30,000 job-years (a job-year is equal to one job lasting one year), and will generate over $115 million in state revenues,” the report concluded.