Crisco wins Senate vote to expand biomedical funds for stroke research

HARTFORD – State Sen. Joseph J. Crisco, Jr., D-Woodbridge, Senate chair of the legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee, has won unanimous Senate approval for his initiative to expand the state’s innovative and highly successful Biomedical Research Fund to include grants for studies into the cause and cure for strokes.

 
Crisco said the debilitating result of strokes can devastate the afflicted and their families alike and should be the focus of renewed and intensified medical research.

The Biomedical Research Fund was established through legislation originally introduced by Crisco. Each year the state Department of Public Health directs tobacco settlement funds to underwrite worthy research seeking a cure for heart disease, cancer, other smoking-related diseases; in 2010 its scope was expanded to include Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes.

“Researchers already know several risk factors with regard to stroke that include high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and tobacco use, each of which aligns perfectly with the original purpose of the Biomedical Research Fund,” Crisco said.
 “But the debilitating fallout from stroke depends on which part of the brain is deprived of blood and oxygen, and for how long, so there’s a world of research still waiting to be done.”

Crisco said Connecticut’s Biomedical Research Fund was originally meant to supplement funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) but over time, with drastic cuts at the federal level, Connecticut’s program has largely supplanted NIH grants.

“There are more than seven million stroke survivors in the United States who are recovering, but additional research is needed to help them – and new stroke patients – do so more quickly and more thoroughly,” Crisco added.
 “Additional research might be in order to help prevent strokes among higher risk groups like women, older men, and African-Americans.”

Crisco said the bill expand the scope of the Biomedical Research Fund to include strokes now advances to the House of Representatives for its consideration.

This post is taken from a press release from Crisco's office.