ON JULY 18, 2006, the U.S. Senate convened to vote on a proposed bill (H.R.810) that would amend the Public Health Service Act and provide federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells. This bill was passed by the Senate but was later vetoed by President George W Bush. The two West Virginia Senators, Democrats Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller, both voted in support of the bill.

As of early 2008, the only hospital offering blood stem cell transplants for therapeutics in the state of West Virginia was the West Virginia University Hospital System, under the leadership of Solveig G. Ericson, M.D., Ph.D. Ericson is the director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant and Hématologie Malignancy Program. This program offers blood stem cell transplants, ...