Good morning. It’s Wednesday. We will meet the new president and CEO of a foundation that supports stem cell research. We’ll also get details on a $5 million fine in a New Jersey tax break scandal.
Jennifer Raab heard about the space launch while interviewing for a job at the New York Stem Cell Foundation, which unexpectedly turned emotional.
Valentina Fossati, a scientist at the foundation, said the test tubes will be part of the payload on a private mission to the International Space Station. The test tubes will contain 3D models of brain tissue that scientists at the institute had made from stem cells. Fossati said scientists hoped to learn whether space was the place to study neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
Afterwards, Fossati said she had multiple sclerosis herself.
“It was very moving,” Raab said, “to realize that someone had turned her own challenges into work to solve a problem for the general population.”
Raab was hired as the foundation’s president and CEO. The space mission launched on its third day of operation. The project, carried out in collaboration with other research institutions, will study the cells when they are returned to earth. Researchers will look for changes caused by microgravity in space and whether these changes could be applied to diseases such as Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis
The job took Raab from the East in the 1960s, where she worked for 22 years as president of Hunter College, to the West in the 1950s, where several life sciences organizations have moved in search of space in buildings with large footprints that can accommodate their laboratories.
“It’s no secret that there’s a lot of empty space, given the change in work habits,” he said. “Laboratories are places where people need to be. There are obviously things you can do virtually, but scientists love to be in labs looking into their microscopes and working together. Of the many occupations in which people like to be present, this is one.’
The foundation was born out of frustration in the early 2000s—frustration that research into potential treatments for Type 1 diabetes was lagging behind. Susan Solomon, who was an attorney and management consultant, founded the organization with Mary Elizabeth Bunzel. Solomon’s teenage son had type 1 diabetes and she wanted to speed up work on potential breakthroughs.
At the time, President George W. Bush had limited embryonic stem cell research using federal money in response to objections from social conservatives. Solomon, who died in 2022, wanted to undertake the research with privately raised money. The foundation says it has invested more than $450 million in research in the 19 years since its inception.
Raab, who retired from Hunter last summer, is not a scientist — she has a law degree from Harvard and a master’s in public affairs from Princeton.
She amassed a record as a fundraiser at Hunter, taking in more than $531 million in her years there to increase student scholarships and endow faculty chairs, among other things. He also said science was a “passion” and said Hunter had raised $65 million for space in a Weill Cornell Medical College building.
But Raab’s management style was sometimes criticized at Hunter. In 2013 an assistant dean described “personal attacks and a culture of fear and distrust”. The dean was leaving, as were three senior administrators.
And in January of last year, Hunter agreed to pay $200,000 and a former psychology professor agreed to pay $375,000 to settle a federal fraud case involving allegations that the professor — who was director of Hunter’s Center for Educational Studies — had misuse grant money. for personal travel, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Raab called one aspect of research at the foundation “tech-bio,” which she said was not biotechnology. Tech-bio involves a collaboration with Google to apply algorithms “to analyze and see what you couldn’t see with your eye” on a controlled sampling of cells — which had Parkinson’s, which were healthy and who had developed a different variant of Parkinson’s.
“It really is about a better future,” he said.
Weather
A cloudy day is expected with temperatures in the 40s. Overnight, it will be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the mid-30s.
ALTERNATIVE PARKING
Valid until February 9 (Lunar New Year’s Eve).
New York breaking news
A $5 million penalty for tax breaks
Holtec International is a New Jersey-based energy company whose projects include the decommissioning of several nuclear power plants, including the Indian Point facility on the Hudson River north of New York City.
On Tuesday, Holtec agreed to pay a $5 million fine following a criminal investigation into tax breaks it was given. The fine, announced by the New Jersey attorney general’s office, allowed Holtec to avoid criminal prosecution.
George Norcross III, a Democrat who is powerful — and feared — in New Jersey is on Holtec’s board. He has long played an important role in New Jersey politics, although he has never held elected office. But his strength has recently waned after embarrassing losses, including the defeat of Stephen Sweeney, who was the president of the state Senate, in 2021. Sweeney lost his seat to Edward Durr, a truck driver who was running for the first time .
The deal led to a criminal prosecution related to a 2018 application for $1 million in tax breaks that went to Holtec and a second company, Singh Real Estate Enterprises, which was linked to Holtec founder Krishna Singh.
“We’re sending a clear message: No matter how big and powerful you are, if you lie to the state for financial gain, we will hold you accountable — finally,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement.
Holtec, in a statement, denied “any misconduct”. Kelly Trice, president of a Holtec unit, called the dispute “unfortunate” and said the company wanted to “put this behind us and redouble our focus on the important clean energy work of our New Jersey workers.”
A Norcross spokesman had no comment on the $5 million fine, but noted that Norcross never had an ownership stake in Holtec and that the state had lost legal challenges after it tried to withhold some of Holtec’s tax breaks.
Holtec received $260 million in tax credits in 2014 under a program that Gov. Philip Murphy, a Democrat, criticized during his 2017 campaign. , a Republican—came to define the early years of Murphy’s tenure.
METROPOLITAN calendar
Slow startup
Dear Diary:
I bought the book “Chemistry Lessons” and gave it to my daughter. A week later, she called and we arranged to meet near her apartment on Second Avenue in the 70s so she could give me the book.
As he handed it over he told me why he was returning it so soon.
“I just couldn’t get into it,” he said. “The beginning was very slow.”
