Showing posts with label lab construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lab construction. Show all posts

Sunday, November 13, 2011

$127 Million in 'Good News' for San Diego Stem Cell Researchers

Earlier today, an anonymous reader posted a comment on the California Stem Cell Report wondering where the "good news" was about the stem cell agency. We are not sure whether the reader was wondering about the content of this site or the mainstream media or both.

Sanford Consortium lab from live Webcam shot this weekend
on the Sanford web site. 
But the comment came less than 24 hours after a San Diego area newspaper published a glowing piece about the opening of a new stem cell research building under the auspices of five powerful research organizations – Salk, Scripps, Sanford Burnham, UC San Diego and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, a recent addition to the consortium.

Bradley Fikes of the North County Times wrote the story. He may be the last reporter in California to regularly, albeit infrequently, cover California stem cell issues for a mainstream newspaper.

Fikes' story heralded the $127 million structure. (The cost includes equipment.) He wrote,
"San Diego County's bid for supremacy in the fast-growing field of stem cell research will gain an iconic new image Nov. 29, when a gleaming headquarters for some of San Diego County's top stem cell researchers officially opens.

"The 132,000 square-foot building off in La Jolla will become the headquarters of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine...."
The consortium was formed in the wake of voter approval of Prop. 71, which created California's $3 billion stem cell program and provided hundreds of millions of dollars for new labs. Edward Holmes, formerly vice chancellor at UC San Diego, is president and CEO of the consortium. Holmes is also chairman of the National Medical Research Council in Singapore. (For Holmes perspective on the consortium, see this 2010 interview.)

The building was financed with $43 million from the California stem cell agency, $65 million in bonds guaranteed by the University of California and $19 million from T. Denny Sanford, a South Dakota billionaire banker.

After CIRM approved funding for the building in May 2008, the consortium struggled with finding cash beyond what CIRM provided. The roadblocks delayed work on the facility, which was supposed to be completed by May 2010 at a cost of $155 million, according to the stem cell agency.

Like the other new labs assisted by $271 million in stem cell agency construction funds, the San Diego building is touted as conducive to bringing scientists together. Indeed, it has been dubbed a "collaboratory."

Fikes wrote,
"Even the staircases have been designed in keeping with the goal of making as much space as possible serve collaboration. The Sanford Consortium's staircases are wide, open and airy. They connect multiple 'laboratory neighborhoods' on different levels, so that scientists from different labs and floors will inevitably pass each other on their way to work."
Fikes said that at each level the staircases include areas with tables and chairs for quick chats. He quoted Louis Coffman, chief operating officer of the consortium, as saying,
"It's a lively interlude between floors. It creates an interesting space. More than that, it connects the physical locations of two different floors. So whereas people on different floors, who would otherwise be as disconnected as they would be in different buildings, hopefully they're going to make connections."

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

San Diego Consortium Pushing Ahead on $115 Million Lab

San Diego's Sanford Stem Cell Consortium, an alliance of UC San Diego, Scripps, Burnham and Salk, says that it remains committed to its $115 million lab construction project and that site preparation is currently underway.

Louis Coffman, vice president of the consortium, made the comment Monday in response to a report in the UC San Diego campus newspaper that the project, funded in part with $43 million from CIRM, had been put on an indefinite hold because of financial reasons. CIRM last month disclosed that it is facing a severe cash flow problem because of its inability to sell state bonds.

Coffman said that site preparation has begun but that actual construction will not start until the consortium concludes "the definitive ground lease" with UC San Diego, a process expected to take three to four weeks. Coffman said,
"And it will take a similar amount of time to nail down definitive financing terms and then likely several weeks after that to consummate financing."
Coffman also told the California Stem Cell Report, "SCRM (the consortium) has not expressed doubt that it will receive the grant funds from CIRM. We are confident that CIRM will pay SCRM the grant funds due to SCRM when due.

"California¹s financial challenges have raised potential lender¹s concerns about CIRM¹s ability to pay the grant funds, but CIRM has the means and is working on a document meant to assuage those concerns.

"True, the tax exempt bond market turmoil has impeded our efforts to raise debt funds. But it is an impediment that we will overcome. The tax exempt bond market is showing signs of stabilizing and we continue to work with several groups who have expressed keen interest to help us raise the necessary funds.

"We are fully committed to this project to realize the promise of the Consortium, to harness the power of stem cells to develop the means to diagnose, treat and one day we hope to cure degenerative and other diseases and injuries."

The consortium has close links to the stem cell agency. Two members of the consortium's board of directors, John Reed of Burnham and Marsha Chandler of Salk, also sit on the CIRM board of directors. Scripps and UC San Diego also have representatives on the CIRM board, Floyd Bloom and David Brenner, respectively.

The CIRM grant to the consortium is conditioned on the organization's ability to raise matching funds and meet a completion deadline of December 2010.

Friday, September 12, 2008

The CIRM Name Game; USC Goes First


The University of Southern California has become the first California institution to break ground on a stem cell research facility that is partially financed with some of the state's $3 billion in stem cell research funds.

Rattling around in the background is an extremely low profile discussion of naming protocols for structures financed by CIRM, including a comment from one CIRM director that she hates the term CIRM.

In case you missed the USC event, it occurred Sept. 4 with considerable institutional ballyhoo, but also some media coverage. The Los Angeles Times, which rarely writes about CIRM affairs despite being the largest newspaper in the state, recorded the ceremonies along with some television coverage, based on what can be found at the USC web site.

CIRM Chairman Robert Klein and CIRM President Alan Trounson were on hand (see USC photo above with Klein in tan suit and Trounson on far right) to heft two finely polished shovels. But the man of the hour was Eli Broad (the white-haired man next to the woman), whose foundation popped for $30 million for the facility, which will cost a total of $80 million. California taxpayers, via CIRM, added $27 million. USC said the remainder will come from other individuals and foundations.

The 80,000-square-foot structure will be formally called the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, but it is impossible to tell right now how it will be referred to on a regular basis by its users.

CIRM has more than a casual interest in the naming of buildings it helps to finance. The stem cell agency requires that institutions secure the agency's approval. Don Gibbons, chief communications officer, told CIRM directors that the USC name will not be official until the directors approve it at their meeting later this month. The naming protocol is also of substantial interest to the institutions that want to recognize individuals or foundations that make hefty contributions, including ones that exceed CIRM funding.

Last month, Gibbons discussed the phrasing used by USC and also language proposed by UC Davis. UCD plans to use "California Institute for Regenerative Medicine" as a subscript on the name of its stem cell research lab.

On a straw vote last month, directors indicated that they favored both methods, but not before a brief discussion of whether CIRM is a "very good brand" or whether the "California Institute for Regenerative Medicine" is better. The question seemed to revolve around whether the public would understand that both names indicated that cash came from the California stem cell agency.

CIRM Director Joan Samuelson said the CIRM abbreviation had bothered her for a long time.She said,
"I hate the brand CIRM...It sounds like sperm."
She said CIRM "means absolutely nothing to the public," which is financing the stem cell effort.

"CIRM just doesn't mean anything," Samuelson said, suggesting it would be "lovely" to name buildings after people who are suffering.

Our take: The public does not know what CIRM is, nor does it know what the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is. High profile public recognition is not likely to occur short of a huge scandal or an incredible research breakthrough. The difficulty with both expressions is that neither says stem cell research. That is the main reason we initially refer in our items to the California stem cell agency. No confusion there.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Stem Cell Snippets: Hanky-Panky to Jobs for Those Love Long Hours


Enviros Against Stem Cell Lab/Classroom Building -- An activist group and the city of Santa Cruz have blocked construction of an $80 million facility at UC Santa Cruz that would house stem cell research activities. A judge halted the project for environmental reasons. The four-story facility would include stem cell labs and service nearly 1,400-science students.

Scientific Integrity – The California stem cell agency has based many of its policies and rules on assumptions of nearly universal scientific integrity. Glenn McGee(see photo), writing in The Scientist and on the blog of the American Journal of Bioethics, indirectly questions those assumptions. He cites studies that show widespread hanky-panky in the authorship of peer-reviewed pieces, particularly in cases where senior researchers claim authorship even when they are marginally involved. McGee also has suggestions for reform. Interestingly, the entry point for his article is a matter that figured in the controversy over approval of a California stem cell agency grant to a subsidiary of the CHA Health Systems of South Korea.

Yolo Stem Cell Land Deal – Land developer Angelo Tsakopolous has shelved his land development deal that would have also established a stem cell research center in Northern California near UC Davis and Sacramento. Jeff Raimundo, a spokesman for Tsakopolous, told the California Stem Cell Report that the controversial proposal has been put off. California stem cell Chairman Robert Klein lobbied local government officials on behalf of the proposal, but they shied away from the effort. The concept of the plan was also supported by the International Stem Society for Stem Cell Research. Tsakopolous is a persistent man, however, and his proposal could well surface again in one form or another.

Stem Cell Lab Grants – On Oct. 2, the California stem cell agency will consider rules concerning administration of $222 million in grants for stem cell lab construction. The Facilities Working Group will take up the proposal prior to consideration by the CIRM Oversight Committee the next day.

NAS Stem Cell Meeting in California – Coming up Oct. 8-9 in Irvine, Ca., is a National Academy of Sciences conference called "Therapeutic Cloning: Where Do We Go From Here?" A host of top flight scientists are listed as speakers. The session will address such questions as sources of eggs and alternative methods of creating pluripotent cells.

Looking for Work? -- If you are interested in working across the street from the home field of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, CIRM is looking for a few good men and women. Jobs available at the agency include associate legal counsel, grants management specialist, paralegal and scientific officers.. Long hours are guaranteed. (CIRM headquarters is near the Giants field.)

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