The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission awarded $14 million to several Baltimore universities, nonprofits and startups to boost stem cell development on Tuesday as part of an effort by the state government to expand funding for cancer research.
The commission, which is an arm of the Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO), awarded 39 entities, including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore as it looks to address a shortage of manufacturing facilities for biological research. The goal of the manufacturing grants is to give companies and other institutions the capital to build new lab facilities to bring more of their manufacturing in-house.
The wave of grants comes after former Gov. Larry Hogan gave the commission $20.5 million in fiscal year 2023 toward stem cell research as part of his $216 million cancer moonshot initiative, more than double the $8.2 million he gave the commission from the previous year. The influx of cash gave the arm of TEDCO the flexibility to create more specific grant programs, including a new program expanding manufacturing infrastructure.
A shortage of proper lab space has stifled companies' efforts to expand their biological research, creating a bottleneck for the industry in Maryland.
“We believe that the funds for manufacturing assistance, which approach $1,000,000 per project, will enable our stem cell businesses to overcome manufacturing challenges they face in today’s economy and give Maryland a competitive advantage," Ruchika Nijhara, the executive director of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, said in a press release.
Several local nonprofits such as the Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger and the Lieber Institute for Brain Development also won grant awards. Baltimore medical technology startup Vita Therapeutics won one commercialization grant and one manufacturing assistance grant to develop its treatment for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, a genetic condition that weakens the muscles of a patient. The state funding builds off the company’s $31 million funding round in 2022, giving the company even more money as it pushes toward a Food and Drug Administration-approved human trial next year.
The fund has opened up applications for businesses interested in the first round of grants in 2024, applications are due on July 13, 2023. Gov. Wes Moore is maintaining the funding level of the fund into 2024, so the commission will again have a budget of $20.5 million.
The Stem Cell Research Commission is not the only TEDCO fund to see growth over the past several years. On Monday, Gov. Wes Moore signed a bill creating a new TEDCO fund focused on "Equitech." The fund will invest in public, nonprofit and private entities to attempt to stimulate employment opportunities in the technology industry. A TEDCO report calling for the creation of the fund emphasized the importance of manufacturing since mass production can employ a larger number of workers than research and discovery jobs.
There are also private sector efforts to boost stem cell manufacturing in Baltimore. Germantown public company Orgenesis is partnering with Johns Hopkins Medicine to build a 7,000-square-foot cell therapy manufacturing center.
