As Washington grappled last week with whether to ease restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, two foundations launched an assault on Wisconsin’s embryonic stem cell patents.
Such a move, which was expected, is common when there are broad patents on a technology with so much potential, and it probably won’t be the last.
It also signaled increasing awareness among scientists and companies that the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s patents make this state the biggest interchange through which all stem cell commercialization must travel.