Kansas Coalition
for Lifesaving Cures
PO Box 394
Topeka KS 66601-0394
Toll-free: 800-821-2658
Email: info@kansascures.com
| Editorial February 14, 2006 Commentary by Richard Brown Kansas City Star |
Creating a climate for science and success
The Stowers Institute for Medical Research is a medical research organization endowed with a combined $2 billion in assets through the generosity of Jim and Virginia Stowers. Their wealth was created by an economic development initiative launched by Jim Stowers in the late 1950s and known today as American Century.
The Stowers Institute serves as one among several regional assets in the development of a strategy designed to make what Jim Stowers has identified as BioMed Valley (the Kansas City region) a leading center for basic biomedical research and discovery development over the next 25 years.
This unparalleled financial support from a private nongovernmental source enables the Kansas City region -- along with the two states of Kansas and Missouri -- to aggressively contend for national prominence in the emerging biomedical economy, and to do so without the huge public financing burden being embraced by other states.
Kansas City enjoys life science strengths too numerous to list here. But the key players have historically been fragmented, uncoordinated and even competitive. This history is the result of a variety of issues, including geographic boundaries, misalignment of community interests, and other suboptimizing and marginalizing behaviors that will obstruct achievement of the full potential this opportunity presents, if not reversed. Failure to effectively align our best resources on both sides of the state line to achieve this goal would be tragic. Irv Hockaday and the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute have energetically embraced this challenge and are actively addressing it.
Virtually every major urban area in the U.S. has identified life science opportunities as a part of its vision for its future economic structure. The Kansas City region's substantial resources establish realistic expectations for Kansas City to aspire to the highest levels of success in this economic sector.
The achievement of this potential will require a positive legislative and regulatory environment conducive to the pursuit of scientific excellence, and support of economic development opportunities created by new technologies and inventions. The first and most critical step for government in our region is simple -- "do no harm." To date, both states are succeeding splendidly with this objective.
Despite legislative threats to criminalize certain promising areas of research over the past four years, the legal climate in Missouri has not deteriorated. The threat, however, of a criminalization law has cast the shadow of a dark cloud on the entire state. Gov. Matt Blunt has displayed notable courage and superb leadership in his advocacy of favorable policies protecting the opportunities these developments represent.
A grass-roots effort seeking a constitutional amendment that would definitively protect specific forms of research creates the opportunity to establish Missouri as one of the most favorable states for scientists as they pursue solutions to life's complex problems. This grass-roots effort, which is funded privately, will culminate with a ballot measure to be decided in November 2006.
Although less public, there are equally serious threats expressed by members of the Kansas Legislature proposing to criminalize certain forms of research as well. To date, those initiatives have not matured to a significant level through the legislative process.
Kansas also enjoys the very positive support of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in seeking to protect the status of the state's research environment. Unfortunately, Kansas faces the additional challenge of scriptural literalists who seek to alter the academic foundations for secondary biology courses, which compromises the image of Kansas in the eyes of many of the world's leading scientists. This undesirable condition should be thoughtfully addressed by the voters in Kansas.
Kansas has also taken a substantial step toward funding scientific opportunities for the state through the creation of the Kansas BioSciences Authority, a major initiative for this economic opportunity. The University of Kansas is accepting its leadership responsibility to become the primary academic axis around which this regional vision can be built. KU Chancellor Bob Hemenway and Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Atkinson of KU Medical Center, with the overt support of Gov. Sebelius, have demonstrated their commitment to this emerging role.
The Stowers Institute represents the culmination of a concentrated effort to create the most favorable possible environment for the pursuit of scientific excellence. That formula has worked for the Stowers Institute, which, under the outstanding leadership of William Neaves, enjoys recognition around the world for its scientific successes.
Those responsible for the legislative and regulatory climate in the Kansas City region, including leaders in the two state capitols, can expect similar spectacular success if an optimum legislative and regulatory climate for science in general, and state-of-the-art research in particular, is created and preserved. Creation of such a climate will not be without controversy.
It is exceedingly important, however, to avoid allowing vocal minorities to seize control of policy agendas that could undermine this amazing opportunity for our region. Towering above all of these economic issues is the hope for resolution of human suffering that the research itself may create.
That benefit will not be confined to the Kansas City region, nor the two states of Missouri and Kansas. There will, however, be a direct correlation between the millions whose medical suffering may be assisted by the work done in this region and the economic vitality and health of the region for decades to come.