Stubbing out tobacco-funded research — is it all for the good?

May 9, 2007 | Matt Marshall

A few weeks from now, the University of California and Stanford University may both institute across-the-board bans on tobacco-industry research funding, a sign of the latest struggle between academic integrity and university buckraking to play out across higher education.

See David Hamilton’s story at VentureBeat Life Sciences, and how Stanford President John Hennessy is, in my view at least, avoiding a knee-jerk decision and thinking sensibly through the issue. If you read the Mercury News story David links to, you’ll see that the tobacco funding may actually be doing some good in some cases.

Also, see David’s continued coverage of daily venture capital investments into healthcare.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.