Wisconsin Advanced Technology Advocates, Inc.

Hybrid Embryo Research Endorsed

By Mary Jordan

Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, May 20, 2008; A07

LONDON, May 19 -- British lawmakers voted Monday to allow the use of animal-human embryos for research after a national debate that pitted religious leaders who called it unethical against the prime minister and scientists who said it would help cure disease.

Last month, scientists at Newcastle created part-human, part-animal embryos for the first time in Britain. An attempt Monday night to ban the process, during consideration in the House of Commons of the first major revisions to embryo research laws in a generation, failed overwhelmingly on a vote of 336 to 176.

The overall bill, argued Prime Minister Gordon Brown, would enable lifesaving research that could help people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases. He said in an article published in the Observer newspaper Sunday, "I believe that we owe it to ourselves and future generations to introduce these measures."

The bill would allow scientists to continue injecting human DNA into cows' eggs that have had virtually all their genetic material removed, as well as other hybrid embryo processes for stem cell research. Scientists say the embryos would not be allowed to develop for more than 14 days.

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Congressional Budget Office: Patent bill cost exceeds expected revenue

By Andrew Noyes CongressDaily February 19, 2008

Legislation making sweeping changes in patent law that is slated for Senate debate in the coming weeks would increase federal spending by $26.9 billion and boost revenue by $25.5 billion over a nine-year period beginning in 2009, according to a CBO analysis released late last week.

The legislation sponsored by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would alter the rule that prioritizes the award of a patent from the "first to invent" to the first inventor to file; increase the Patent and Trademark Office's authority to collect and spend fees; and institute a number of litigation-related changes. A sizable shift on the federal balance sheet would result from language to make permanent the PTO's authority over money collected from patent and trademark applications, CBO said. Compliance costs could be $200 million annually starting in 2009, with most of the financial burden falling on the private sector, officials said.

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Doyle aims to help tech firms

By Judy Newman
608-252-6156
January 8, 2008

More tax breaks and more state funding — those are some of the tools Gov. Jim Doyle will recommend as a way to encourage investment in young technology companies.

Doyle told a meeting Monday of the steering committee of Thrive, the economic development arm for the eight-county Madison region, that he is proposing a plan called Accelerate Wisconsin.

"My vision is for Wisconsin companies to have access to the capital they need to flourish," Doyle said.

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Forward Wisconsin faces uncertain future

The future of Forward Wisconsin, a 20-year-old public-private economic development initiative, is uncertain as it faces uncertain funding and the loss of its executive director.
Pepi Randolph, an attorney who has been head of Forward Wisconsin for two-and-one-half years, will become national vice president of sales and marketing for the Potawatomi Business Development Corp., starting April 1.

The corporation handles investments for the Forest County Potawatomi tribe, which runs Milwaukee’s the Potawatomi Bingo and Casino in Milwaukee.

Tony Hozeny, a spokesman for Wisconsin Commerce Secretary Mary Burke, said the Forward board of directors will meet Feb. 16. “Beyond that, we have no comment,” he said.

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Stem cell debate goes to voters

Stem cell debate goes to voters
By Christine Vestal, Stateline.org Staff Writer

For the first time since the stem cell debate began, voters are being asked to weigh job creation and potential life-saving cures against moral concerns over the destruction of human embryos in an impassioned battle over a Missouri ballot measure supporting the science.

While the Show Me state is the only one with the question on the Nov. 7 ballot, the controversy over embryonic stem cell research is playing prominently in the Wisconsin governor’s race and cropping up in state races scattered across the country. A few Republican gubernatorial candidates are breaking ranks with the Bush administration by running on their support for the controversial research.

The outcome of the initiative in Missouri – where embryonic stem cell research also has gotten caught up in a tight U.S. Senate race between State Auditor Claire McCaskill (D) and incumbent Sen. Jim Talent (R) – could influence future federal and state efforts to either block or support the science, political analysts say.

McCaskill has made support for embryonic stem cell research a keystone of her campaign, while Talent steadfastly opposes the science on moral grounds.

“If the initiative wins in a battleground state like Missouri, where both Republicans and Democrats have been elected statewide, it is likely to embolden other states that have an economic interest in supporting the science,” said Michael Werner of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, an advocacy group for the life sciences.

Scientists are eager to experiment with stem cells from human embryos because the cells have the capacity to develop into any organ tissue in the body. Non-controversial adult stem cell research also is being pursued, but scientists say adult cells do not hold the same potential for cures and therapies.

While Missouri’s proposed constitutional amendment would not commit state funds to the science, it would ensure its legality, unleashing private funding and removing a cloud over the research created by repeated state legislative attempts to criminalize it.

Last year, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R), an anti-abortion conservative, vetoed a measure pushed by conservative legislators that would have made involvement in the science a felony. Blunt derailed the bill because he feared it would cause scientists and the research money backing them to leave the state.

In a close state race, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) is using his support of embryonic stem cell research to differentiate himself from conservative challenger U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R), who opposes using human embryos for the research.

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Senate to Consider Stem Cell Proposals

Senate to Consider Stem Cell Proposals
Fertility Patients Could Donate Embryos

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 30, 2006; Page A05

Senate leaders from both parties agreed yesterday to schedule a vote on a package of bills that would loosen President Bush's five-year-old restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research.

With head counts suggesting there are enough votes to pass the legislation and with Bush having promised he would veto it, yesterday's action sets the stage for what could be the first full-blown showdown between the chamber and the president.

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Patients said to offer stem-cell solution

Patients said to offer stem-cell solution
'we can all live with'

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — As the U.S. Senate prepared to consider competing proposals on the funding of stem-cell research, a representative of the U.S. bishops' pro-life office said the presence of four people on Capitol Hill showed that "there are solutions we can all live with."

Deirdre McQuade, director of planning and information in the bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, participated in a June 20 press conference organized by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and featuring four patients who have been treated successfully for a variety of illnesses with adult stem cells or those from umbilical-cord blood.

The four were Jackie Rabon of Waverly, Ill., a paraplegic who received a successful treatment with adult stem cells; Ryan Schneider of Chicago, who received a cord-blood treatment for cerebral palsy; Abby Pell of the Washington area, who was treated with her own cord blood for brain damage she suffered at birth; and David Foege of Naples, Fla., who was successfully treated for heart failure with adult stem cells.

"We praise these patients and families for their courage, their persistence and their willingness to come to Washington to present how ethically sound stem-cell research is paving the road to treatments," McQuade said.

"No one should think that the stem-cell debate forces us to choose between ethics and science," she added. "We can support both. There is no need to sell our souls in the quest to heal our bodies."

At the press conference Brownback said the four told "absolutely phenomenal stories of successes" using adult stem cells or cord-blood stem cells. "We need to do more of this," he added.

The Kansas senator called for a full floor debate on bioethics issues when the Senate considers H.R. 810, the Stem-Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which he and the Catholic Church oppose.

"I want you to see where we're seeing successes without bioethical questions involved," he said at the press conference.

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Law aims for broadband boost

Law aims for broadband boost
Phone companies that extend Internet service would qualify for credits
By DORIS HAJEWSKI
dhajewski@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 30, 2006

Phone companies that extend broadband Internet service to unserved rural areas will qualify for up to $7.5 million in tax credits under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 483, which was introduced by Sens. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) and Robert Jauch (D-Poplar), aims to spur investment by telecom providers in areas that are less profitable because of the location or low population density.

The bill was hailed as a boon to development in rural areas by representatives of both AT&T and TDS Telecom Corp.

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UWM re-aims its research

UWM re-aims its research
State money will be used to bring new businesses, outside funding
By JOHN SCHMID and MEGAN TWOHEY
jschmid@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 12, 2006

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is overhauling the way it allocates state funding for research, with the goal of creating more accountability and entrepreneurship within its ranks.

UWM Chancellor Carlos Santiago said the new Research Growth Initiative is the university's main strategy to boost its annual research budget from $39 million now to more than $100 million within 10 years.

"We've never done this before," said Santiago, who was hired in 2004 to reverse the school's declining research stature and upgrade its role as an economic catalyst for the region. Santiago says he wants to emulate top-ranked technology schools in cities such as Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco that routinely produce entrepreneurs and commercial applications.

"You'll see, hopefully, more patents, more disclosures, more start-ups," he said.

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Bill in Congress takes aim at 'hull splashing' in boat industry

Cracking down on copycats
Bill in Congress takes aim at 'hull splashing' in boat industry
By RICK BARRETT
rbarrett@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 5, 2005

It's called "hull splashing" when a boat builder makes an unauthorized copy of a hull design and calls it his own.

With a little luck, Wisconsin marine manufacturers say, proposed changes to a federal law would end the practice that's bothered them for decades.

Senate Bill 1785 is meant to strengthen the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act passed by Congress seven years ago but lacking in some important areas, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association, a Chicago-based trade group.

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