Fate of science "hero" uncertain

It isn't often that citizens from a single state in the union can dramatically shift the fate of research support in the United States, but Pennsylvania voters may have the chance on Tuesday (May 18). They head to the polls in a primary election that will determine whether democratic Senator Arlen Specter -- arguably the most celebrated champion of biomedical research in Congress -- will remain in his seat next year.

Arlen Specter Image: Steve Dietz/Sharp Image

Specter, a decades-long incumbent, is challenged by a comparatively green Congressman, Joe Sestak, currently representing the state in the House of Representatives. Fueled by volleys of television advertising, which highlights Specter's recent switch from the Republican party (which Sestak's camp dubs "opportunistic"), Sestak has made a steady climb in the polls and has become a formidable opponent.

"We are following this [election] with great interest," said Ellen Sigal, the chair of Friends of Cancer Research, a cancer research think tank. Sigal says she's worked with Specter for years. "He's revered in our community," Sigal said. "No one has done as much for biomedical research with as much passion -- and, frankly, delivery, rather than rhetoric." The senator was instrumental in adding $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health to the 2009 stimulus package. In the 1990s he led the charge to double the NIH budget. Most recently, he tucked $500 million for translational research into the healthcare overhaul bill that passed this year.

Specter has been both the chairman and ranking member on the appropriations subcommittee for Health and Human Services, which determines the budget for the NIH. "Absent my push I think there's no doubt the funding would go way down," Specter told The Scientist.

Research advocates are concerned that Specter might be right. Mary Woolley, the president of Research!America, points out that there's been a recent loss of support for research on Capitol Hill, with Senator Edward Kennedy's death last year and the upcoming retirement of Representative David Obey. "The strong champions for research for health are very few in number in the Senate right now, and really Senator Specter is critical in that regard," Woolley said.

The research community could ask for a worse replacement in Joe Sestak, however. In 2005, his daughter was diagnosed with (and has since survived) glioblastoma, and he says the experience inspired him. "Healthcare and the research needed, particularly in cancer, as well as in other areas, is what drove me to Congress with my daughter's brain tumor," Sestak told The Scientist.

Sestak has only been in Congress for two terms, but "his voting record in the Congress has been one of support for research generally and especially research for the military and veterans," Woolley said. Sestak was a two star Rear Admiral in the Navy. He has also authored legislation supportive of angel investors and venture capital -- two important funders of early stage biotechnology companies. And, like Specter, Sestak supports embryonic stem cell research.

The real blow to the research community could come at the general election later this year, when the Democratic victor faces the likely Republican candidate, Pat Toomey. Joanne Carney, the director of the AAAS Center for Science, Technology and Congress, said the most salient representation of Toomey's tenure in the House was an amendment Toomey sponsored that would have de-funded some NIH grants. "That memory may be a bit raw still within the biomedical research community," Carney said. And according to the latest Rasmussen poll of potential voters, Toomey leads either Democrat by several points.

Carney, Woolley and Sigal said they do not endorse candidates.

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