From the Hartford Courant, January 29, 2009

"State leaders praised the development of the new stem cell lines as validation of the state's 2005 decision to invest $100 million in stem cell research over 10 years. Because former President George W. Bush restricted the use of federal funds for human embryonic stem cell research, the state money allowed Connecticut researchers to work in a cutting-edge area of science that their counterparts in all but a handful of other states could not.

Now, at a time when the state's economic prospects look bleak and policymakers worry about the exodus of young, educated workers from Connecticut, stem cell research is offering a bit of hope. The state stem cell money has allowed Connecticut to lure top scientists — including Xu, Ge Lin, the postdoctoral fellow who created the stem cell lines, and Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center — and has spurred research and biotech business efforts.

"Instead of having a brain drain where all of our best and brightest in Connecticut were going out of the country or to other states, we started to receive some of the best and the brightest in Connecticut," said Warren Wollschlager, who administers the state stem cell research program as the chief of the office of research and development at the state Department of Public Health.

That could soon pay off in even bigger ways.

President Barack Obama is expected to lift the restriction on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, and officials and researchers say Connecticut's head start will give it a major advantage in competing for federal research money.

"We have a track record now, which I think will be looked upon very favorably in Washington," Pescatello said.

So far, the $29.6 million in state stem cell money has been used to build the infrastructure for research facilities, recruit faculty and fund research by scientists from UConn, Wesleyan and Yale. Wollschlager said the state program has begun receiving more private sector applications and that they are improving in quality.

Already, businesses related to stem cells are developing in the state, Pescatello said. One company getting started in the New Haven area is planning to use stem cells to create a uniform supply of cells to test new drugs on, Pescatello said.

UConn's new stem cell lines, named CT1 and CT2, were derived from embryos from a fertility clinic, donated with the consent of the patients, according to UConn