The money would provide grants for university and hospital scientists, establish special research centers to make their work faster and more efficient, and train workers for biotechnology businesses.
Despite the fact that some worker advocates are pointing to Ms. McClain's case as representative of broader problems, they are hard pressed to cite other examples of workers in biotechnology companies being harmed.
The case, which was decided Thursday, has raised questions about the safety of workers in the biotechnology industry and about regulations to protect them.
Down in Pittsboro, N.C., a former hosiery mill where 400 laborers once worked on looms is now home to a biotechnology company, Biolex Therapeutics, where 90 workers use advanced laboratory equipment to develop a drug for a serious liver ailment.
In Baltimore, the city's emerging biotechnology industry had high turnover as workers with bachelor degrees sought more advanced degrees.
Biotechnology, which already employs nearly 3000 workers in the area, is a smaller but growing industry in the area enabled in large part by JSC and the Texas Medical Center in Houston.
A high-technology center in Adlershof, near the new airport in Schönefeld, has attracted 814 firms ranging from biotechnology to media, employing more than 14,000 workers.
In order to attract so-called knowledge workers, in industries like computing, biotechnology and other forms of new technology, a city has to be an appealing place to work, play, live, and raise a family.
And North Carolina offers training for workers to go into the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industries.
More than three dozen of her former co-workers at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego biotechnology concern, also became victims of identity theft.
