Dr. Mahendra Rao, head of the stem-cell unit at the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, announced today he will leave the NIH to join a private biotech company. A career move of interest only to those within the industry? No. Dr. Rao’s move means more than that. He told Wired News that the biggest reason for his departure was President Bush’s executive order denying funding for embryonic stem-cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001. In the Wired interview, Dr. Rao discusses his decision and how he thinks the government restrictions will affect young people considering the field today.

Coincidentally, the New York Times reported today on a new study of university scientists who received federal funding from the National Cancer Institute. The study, conducted by economists, was intended to analyze the commercial activity of these scientists. It found that 70% of the scientists who received patents assigned them to technology transfer offices, while 30% instead tried to commercialize the discoveries themselves. Over 25% started their own businesses. One of the study’s authors comments that “The investments in research and development are spilling out into the economy more than was appreciated.”

The NYT raises several pertinent issues. Will basic research be ignored if it doesn’t lead to commercial benefit? Should scientists get rich from research funded initially by taxpayer dollars? (If innovation is an engine of economic growth, as the article points out, one might conclude there’s no harm done.) The NYT doesn’t ask, however, how Bush’s stem-cell restrictions might impact the economy. In the Wired article, Dr. Rao asserts “In the United States, more than 70 percent of all funding for research comes from the NIH and the NSF and other government funding agencies.” If scientists don’t get this initial jumpstart, will they find it harder to conduct research that could one day be commercialized and help power the economy? One shouldn’t leap to conclusions without running the numbers, but this is definitely a worrisome thought.