Standing for science: Governor Deval Patrick Credit: Darren McCollester/Getty Images

All eyes are on an experiment aimed at boosting local biomedical research in Massachusetts. In June, the state's governor, Deval Patrick, signed the $1 billion Massachusetts Life Sciences Law, which consists of $250 million in tax incentives for life science companies, $250 million in grants and $500 million toward related infrastructure. Patrick says the law will fund research ventures needing a boost at a crucial phase—the transition from the proof of a concept to its commercialization. “A lot of good ideas die there, and the bill tries to plug those funding gaps,” Patrick told Nature Medicine.

“Our community of biomedical investigators is energized by this infusion of state funding and [is] committed to translating fundamental scientific discoveries made at the bench into life-changing therapeutics at the bedside,” says Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts Medical School at Worcester and winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in medicine.

The new law will benefit a wide swath of the biotech sector in that state, including research institutions, teaching hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, according to Daniel O'Connell, the state's secretary of housing and economic development. “We believe we are currently the worldwide 'supercluster' in the industry, but other states and countries are trying to attract our talent and businesses,” O'Connell says. “The goal of the law is to ensure that we don't lose our position of preeminence.”

O'Connell notes that distributing the grants on merit will be a challenge. A scientific advisory committee headed by Harvey Lodish of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will review grant applications by peer review and make recommendations to a board that O'Connell currently chairs. The grants—to be distributed over ten years—will, for example, help create a stem cell bank and facilities for gene therapy and RNA interference research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.