Conn. awards $10m for stem cell research

Connecticut awarded nearly $10 million to stem cell researchers, with 19 getting awards out of nearly 90 who applied for funding.

In 2005 under former Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Connecticut committed $100 million to stem cell research over 10 years. The state”™s stem cell research advisory and peer review committees include academics from other states and countries.

Last year, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s administration convinced the genomics nonprofit Jackson Laboratory to establish a major research facility in Farmington, where the University of Connecticut has its medical school.

Thirteen awards went to researchers affiliated with Yale University, with UConn researchers getting six, including one who also lists an affiliation with Wesleyan University.

Yale”™s Dr. Eugene Redmond, who studies stem cells and treatments for Parkinson”™s disease, received by far the largest grant at $1.8 million.