CIRM Seeking Solution to Director Absenteeism

The California stem cell agency has been dogged for four years by problems with attendance of its directors at its board meeting, and it now is moving forward on a plan to allow some of them to participate by telephone.

The attendance issue is not minor. Without a quorum, the board of the directors cannot take legal action. Concerns arose last month that the board would have difficulties at an important, two-day meeting in December.

John M. Simpson, stem cell project director of Consumer Watchdog of Santa Monica, Ca., attended the meeting of the CIRM Governance Committee that approved the telephone participation. He wrote on his organization's blog earlier this week about the problems with attendance:

"Even when there has been a quorum present there has all too often be a mad rush to take votes before members left for the day. It's not the sort of atmosphere which is conducive to sound deliberation and good policy making."

The attendance issue stems from inflexible language in Prop. 71 that can only be changed by the legislature or another vote of the people. The measure requires a supermajority of 65 percent of directors to conduct business. It also created an unwieldy board of 29 persons, all of whom have major responsibilities elsewhere.

Here's how Simpson described the proposed changes to ease the current problem, short of changing state law.

"The proposed rules would allow up to five members to take part in ICOC meetings by teleconference, but would give the chairman the discretion to limit the number based on 'his or her assessment of the importance of in-person attendance at the ICOC meeting for which a teleconference participation request was made.'

"The rules also limit the number of times a member could phone in to twice a year and offer the teleconference option to ICOC members with significant medical needs."

Simpson continued:

"First, of course, folks who cannot maintain the substantial commitment to the ICOC (the board of directors) ought to quit. There's nothing wrong with that. There is something very wrong with holding a seat and never showing up.

"Second,  a better solution would be to reduce quorum requirements to a simple majority and to adopt a procedure to remove or otherwise sanction members who are chronically absent. Perhaps such suggestions will come from the state's efficiency panel, The Little Hoover Commission, as a result of its planned study."

The CIRM board of directors plans to call a special meeting to adopt the new rules so that they will be in place in December.

Kessler Fired at UCSF, No Longer Can Serve at CIRM

David Kessler, one of the nation's leading public health advocates and a director of the California stem cell agency, has been fired as dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

In an email today to colleagues, Kessler indicated that his dismissal was linked to his efforts to deal with "financial irregularities."

The note said,

"Shortly after arriving at UCSF as Dean, I discovered a series of financial irregularities that predated my appointment. I reported these issues to appropriate university officials at the time, and have endeavored to work with the university ever since to solve these problems. The university characterized me as a whistleblower. During the summer, Chancellor (J. Michael) Bishop requested my resignation. I continued to try to solve these problems. Yesterday, Chancellor Bishop terminated my appointment as Dean, effective immediately."

Bishop released a note to personnel at UCSF later in the day, saying,

"I write to inform you that Professor David Kessler has left office as Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs. I thank him for his energetic service to the university and his substantial achievements on behalf of UCSF. Professor Sam Hawgood has graciously agreed to serve as Interim Dean, effective immediately. I ask that you give him your wholehearted support. An international search for a successor to Dean Kessler will be initiated promptly."

Kessler holds his position on the CIRM Oversight Committee because he is an executive officer of a UC medical school. His termination means that he can no longer sit on the CIRM board.

Kessler served as FDA commissioner from 1990 to 1997. He was dean of the School of Medicine at Yale prior to joining UCSF in 2003.

A story written by this author on the Kessler firing also appeared on Wired.com earlier today.

Thal Dies in Small Plane Crash

Leon Thal, a member of CIRM's Oversight Committee and a brilliant San Diego neuroscientist, died during the weekend when his small plane crashed in the Southern California mountains.

Thal, a longtime and skilled pilot, was the only person aboard when the plane went down Saturday night, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune by Cheryl Clark and Sandra Dibble.

Thal, 62, was chairman of the neurosciences department at UC San Diego and had served as one of the 29-directors of CIRM since its inception two years ago. The San Diego newspaper wrote that Thal

"was one of the world's leading experts in the development of new therapies for Alzheimer's. He directed the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, a consortium of more than 70 research centers in the United States and Canada that investigates experimental therapies. He also managed UCSD's Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

"Thal oversaw more than $100 million in federal research grants and was a collaborator on many others. He and his department had received millions of dollars in research funds over the past 30 years."

In 2004, Thal shared the $100,000 Potamkin Prize, one of the highest honors in neurosciences.

The San Diego paper quoted Henry Powell, a professor of pathology and chairman of the UC San Diego Senate academic senate, as saying of Thal:

"He was a skillful manager of strong-minded people, charming and diplomatic as well as visionary and persuasive."

Thal was appointed to the CIRM board by the governor.