Good morning. Its Wednesday. Well meet the new president and chief executive of a foundation that backs stem cell research. Well also get details on a $5 million fine in a New Jersey tax break scandal.

Jennifer Raab heard about the space launch while being interviewed for a job at the New York Stem Cell Foundation that unexpectedly turned emotional.

Valentina Fossati, a scientist with the foundation, mentioned that test tubes would be part of the payload on a private mission to the International Space Station. The test tubes would contain three-dimensional models of brain tissue that scientists at the foundation had made from stem cells. Fossati said the scientists hoped to learn whether space was the place to study neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinsons disease and multiple sclerosis.

Then Fossati said that she had M.S. herself.

That was very moving, Raab said, to realize that someone had turned her own challenges into working on solving a problem for the general population.

Raab was hired as president and chief executive of the foundation. The space mission was launched on her third day on the job. The project, conducted in collaboration with other research institutions, will study the cells when they are brought back to earth. The researchers will look for changes brought on by microgravity in space and whether such changes could be applied to work on diseases like Parkinsons or M.S.

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A New Gig in the Science World - The New York Times