The seeds of public funding for stem cell research in Illinois were planted in the early to mid-2000s. However, attempts in Illinois in 2004 to pass legislation publicly funding stem cell research were unsuccessful, and the measure died in the Illinois Senate. In 2005 Illinois’s next attempt at funding stem cell research did not even get called to a vote. In fact, Illinois’s first successful policy to support stem cell research did not come from the state legislature at all.
In July 2005 the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute (IRMI) was founded by an executive order from Governor Rod Blagojevich. His order set up the IRMI as a program under the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH). This made Illinois the first state in the Midwest and the fourth in the country to allocate public funds to stem cell research; New Jersey, California, and Connecticut were the three states that preceded Illinois in this commitment. These four states were quickly joined by several others, adding to the national support for publicly funded stem cell research. It was specified in Governor Blagojevich’s executive order that the newly established IRMI would give no money to any research involving human cloning. The sale and purchase of embryonic tissue for research was also prohibited under this order, and parameters were set regarding the latest time period that blas-tocyst cells could be harvested.
In 2006 IRMI handed out its first set of grants, distributing 10 awards that totaled $10 million for research projects working with adult, cord blood, and embryonic stem cells. Grants were reviewed by the panel established by the IDPH, consisting of two bioethicists and six medical personnel from around the world. Grants were awarded for projects such as research to develop replacement blood vessels, eliminating the need for graft harvesting. Other awards were given to research developing treatments for ischemic stroke, muscular dystrophy, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Later in the year, Governor Blagojevich distributed another $5 million, in seven separate grants, to public universities in Illinois to further the cause of stem cell research. It had been proposed that the 2007 budget include more money for research, which would be total $100 million over five years. However, the legislative bodies had not yet acted on this proposal; therefore, the governor responded by distributing the extra $5 million in 2006.
Although Illinois only recently started providing public funding for stem cell-related projects, private institutions have been supporting such research in Illinois since the early 1990s. For example, Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago started a program in 1992 that concentrates on pediatric stem cell transplantation. Since its inception, the program has performed over 700 transplants to treat cancers, blood disorders, immune deficiencies, and metabolic disorders. Dr. Morris Kletzel is the director of this program. A similar program at the University of Illinois in Chicago has performed 50 transplants per year since 1997. These treatments, here referred to as stem cell transplants, are also commonly known as bone marrow transplants, in which autologous stem cells are harvested directly from bone marrow.
Illinois’s most recent legislation was signed into effect in August 2007. Senate Bill 4 was sponsored by State Senator Jeffrey M. Schoenberg and State Representative Tom Cross and was signed into effect by Governor Rod Blagojevich; it took effect on January 1, 2008. The bill permits researchers to receive state funds for embryonic stem cell research. As with the grants distributed in 2006, Senate Bill 4 prohibits money from being used in research related to human cloning. Again, the IDPH will use the IRMI to distribute research funding.
