Our friends at the John Paul II Medical Research Center need your help

Re: Please Contact Iowa Legislators in Support of Regenerative Medicine Tax Credit Bill- House File 277 and Senate File 37

Dear Friends:

We need your help! First, I would like to thank you for supporting ethical medical research in our state. Since 2006, the Institute has successfully generated one of the largest repositories of adult stem cells in the world.

Recently, JP2MRI co-published a research manuscript on a novel way to produce Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells that do not require the use of viruses or oncogenes, thereby opening up a potentially safer clinical option for new therapies.

While recent research findings have caused a decline in embryonic stem cell research, sadly their use continues and remains well funded.

As you can imagine, it is very tough for a small, pro-life based non-profit such as ours to compete against larger academic institutions and private organizations that receive state and federal dollars and grants that primarily or solely support embryonic stem cell research. Most of our Institute’s funding comes from private individuals who follow a pro-life ethic and support ethical medical research.

JP2MRI is currently sponsoring an important Regenerative Medicine Tax Credit bill in both the Iowa House (HF277) and Senate (SF37) that will help level the playing field by supporting only adult stem cell research. The bi-partisan legislation we are proposing, which would greatly enable our organization to translate its laboratory research into a clinical setting, requests a 2 million dollar annual tax credit for our donors. If passed, this bill will support the state of Iowa through job creation, spur collaborations between our Institute and regent university researchers, put Iowa on the map as a biotechnology leader and most importantly, lead to better therapies and potential cures for various medical conditions that currently have no meaningful treatments. While other states have supported medical research legislation, sadly Iowa has not.

We need your help in contacting legislators in the Iowa House and Senate Ways and Means Committees to show support for HF277 and SF37. We especially need you to contact the chairpersons listed below in the Ways and Means Committee to bring the bill up for a vote:

Capital Phone Number: (515) 281-3221