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What would cause a prominent stem cell researcher with a world-class reputation and an office view of the Golden Gate Bridge to move from the University of California–San Francisco to the University of Minnesota? Speaking to your alumni association’s Advocacy Committee this fall, Meri Firpo, explained herself: “This was the only place that I could go to move science forward in the way I want to move it.”

Firpo’s work teaching fellow researchers how to grow and work with embryonic stem cells, in search of a cure for diabetes, is financed through federal funding. Embryonic stem cells, unlike adult stem cells, are self-renewing, so they won’t wear out over time, and they can be used to regenerate tissue to repair all parts of the body.

The University recruited Firpo, and two powerful factors moved her to say yes. First, the University of Minnesota had established the world’s first Stem Cell Institute, which has been led by Catherine Verfaille for the past 16 years. (Although Verfaille is leaving this year to work in her home country of Belgium at the Catholic University of Leuven, she will have a 10 percent appointment at Minnesota.) And Firpo was given first-class research space in the new McGuire Translational Research Facility, where she and her research team will collaborate with other scientists in shared research areas, not work in labs scattered across campus.

Why is the story of Meri Firpo important? It’s a case in point: It takes state-of-the-art laboratories to attract top-ranked scientists, and it takes state money to build these lab facilities. The University is asking the state to authorize the Biomedical Sciences Research Facilities Authority and commit $279 million, to be combined with $31 million from the University. Over the next decade, it would enable the University to construct or renovate roughly 600,000 square feet of space.

Each new building will allow the University to house 40 new faculty researchers and 120 research assistants, attracting $20 million in new research dollars each year per building. The U’s historic strength in medicine and its impact on Minnesota’s economic and health landscape is something many states are seeking to replicate. And other state legislatures are investing heavily in the biomedical sciences, including Arizona with $440 million toward new research facilities; New Jersey with $380 million for a stem cell institute; New York with $1.4 billion for nanotechnology; Wisconsin with $750 million in biomedical research; California with $3 billion toward stem cell research; and Virginia with $554 million for biomedical sciences.

The Biomedical Sciences Research Facilities Authority will change lives and strengthen Minnesota’s economy. World-class researchers attract top students and generate research-based businesses. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that 38.1 jobs are created for every $1 million invested in University research.

Without delay, call the governor of Minnesota, your state senator, and your state representative and urge them to support the funding for the Biomedical Sciences Research Facilities Authority. Tell them that a wonderful opportunity is before us: building our state’s economic future and finding cures to devastating and deadly diseases.

To learn how to contact your legislators, visit www.SupportTheU.umn.edu.