Dozens of state lawmakers, doctors and experts gathered together in Sacramento, the California State Capitol, this week to voice their support for stem cell research and regenerative therapy.
Officials said the State of California poised to be U.S. leader in regenerative Medicine with Chinese partners.
It is widely reported that China has made some significant progress in this cutting-edge scientific field. Just last week National Public Radio in the United States published a report titled "Doctors in China Lead Race to Treat Cancer by Editing Genes," which is about an esophagus cancer patient who tried gene therapy known as CRISPR at Hangzhou Cancer Hospital in southeast China.
In the United States, only one CRISPR cancer study has been approved, according to the report.
At the national level, stem cell research is funded by U.S. National Institutes of Health, which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services. It remains controversial to use public money to fund research on embryonic stem cell and fetal tissue.
The U.S. government has not clearly stated its position on this issue. But the State of California seems ready to "carry the torch in stem cell field" as Senator Ben Allen put it in his remarks at the event on Tuesday.
"California will take a stance in investing in our future," the Chair of the Senate Education Committee Ben Allen said in the meeting. "We are doing this with our global friends and partners from the People's Republic of China."
Proposition 71, also known as the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, was approved by California voters in 2004 to make legal stem cell research in the state.
