Kentucky

Kentucky has no laws pertaining to stem cell research other than a 1992 law that makes the sale or use of a live or viable aborted child a felony. The “Bucks for Brains” program established in 1998 for the purpose of attracting top researchers to the state has indirectly benefitted stem cell research in Kentucky. The state’s two research universities, the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, have funded research through the money generated by the program. Kentucky’s one-of-a-kind competitive Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Matching Funds program, initiated in 2006, has increased the state’s biotechnology profile.

The Kentucky Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997 provided a statutory basis for the endowment match program that matches state dollars with private ...