Back in November 2004, the re-election
of President George Bush dominated the news throughout the nation. But out in
California, there was talk of a new gold rush, triggered by
a measure buried deep on the ballot that month.
The latter-day argonauts were not
expected, however, to be scratching out nuggets. Instead they would
be fiddling with stem cells, particularly human embryonic stem cells.
It all looked like big bucks for the biotech industry -- $3 billion from a new state agency.
That was when the idea for this blog
began to percolate. A few weeks later -- nine years ago this month --
the first item appeared on the
California Stem Cell Report.
It now seems a likely occasion to reflect on the scope and
purpose of what appears here and to discuss readership and other
matters.
 |
David Jensen
Editor California Stem Cell Report |
First, to answer an oft-heard question:
Why am I am writing about this particular agency, formally
known as the
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM)?
The simple answer is that it is interesting, at least to some, and
important. The agency – created by
Proposition 71 of 2004 – is an
exceptional and unprecedented state effort. Nothing like it has
existed in
California history. It operates with unusual autonomy. The
governor and the legislature cannot touch its funding or direct its
research. It survives on $3 billion borrowed by the state, which will
roughly double the cost of the research to $6 billion or so because
of the interest on the borrowing. It also marks another first with
its use of California state debt to pay for scientific research.
At one point, CIRM was the world's
largest single source of funding for human embryonic stem cell
research. The agency has lured top researchers from other states and
countries. And it represents a unique mash-up of government,
politics, big business, big science, big academia, morality, ethics,
life and death and even sex.
Since 2005, the California Stem Cell
Report has been read by researchers, policy makers and other
interested parties around the world. They log in from Singapore and
Great Britain, Canada and Korea as well as institutions ranging from
the NIH and Harvard to Stanford, UC San Francisco, Scripps and
Sanford Burnham and more.
I estimate that only a few thousand
persons around the world are deeply interested on a regular basis in stem cell research,
making the potential audience for this Web site rather small. But
Google reports that as of today 729,841 page views have been
registered during the life of the blog. (I have posted 3,608 items.) Last month, which was slow
because of the holiday, the California Stem Cell Report chalked up
16,878 page views, which are the basic Internet standard for
measuring readership.
The items that seem to grab the most
attention involve individuals as opposed to the nuts and bolts of
either science or policy. When CIRM directors considered election of
a new chairman in 2011, readership jumped. Machinations involving
selection of new presidents at the agency draw readers. Of course,
reports about dubious activities or problems also are of significant
interest. The lure of stories about people nonetheless is not much
different than seen in the mainstream media, based on my 35 or so
years in the news business.
Another matter that has drawn an
extraordinary amount of interest involves money:
specifically the expected cost of stem cell therapies. In 2010, I
posted on Scribd a study financed by CIRM -- one that the agency was not
trumpeting -- that examined the issue of costs. Since then, it has been read 14,096 times, the most of any document that I have posted on the
Scribd service, which provides a way to mount documents and link to
them via the blog.
In its initial years, the blog
primarily surveyed California media reporting on the stem cell
agency, providing links and commentary with some original reporting.
But today the focus is mostly on original reporting with analysis and
commentary. The agency and its doings have slipped off the radar of
the mainstream media, where they probably will remain short of a major
scandal or a massive PR effort by the agency.
One of my goals was to provide detailed
information, news and analysis about California's unusual research
effort – far more than could be done by print media. The idea was
to exploit one of the unique characteristics of the Internet-- the
capability of publishing nearly unlimited amounts of information.
Newspapers constantly cut, squeeze and trim stories because of both
cost and their desire to publish a large number of articles about
many different subjects. With the Internet, there is virtually no
limit on the amount of content, a feature that is both good and
not-so-good. Another goal was to go beyond the official
handouts and to provide a guide to where useful information can be
found.
The California Stem Cell Report differs from the mainstream media in another regard. The blog carries
the remarks of representatives of the agency and other interested
parties VERBATIM, even when
they sometimes involve harsh attacks on
the conduct of the blog. Major media almost never allow such access.
I have a couple of biases that
underpin what I do. One is the assumption that it is beneficial
generally for the government to fund scientific research. The other
and more important principle is that government agencies should
operate with maximum openness and transparency and that their first
obligation is to the people – not the researchers that they fund or
the institutions that have something at stake.
While readers can judge for themselves
the success of the blog, the scope of the readership from the NIH to
California's biotech hot spots suggests it is well-received.
Mainstream media reporters as well as science writers often use the
California Stem Cell Report as a reference and starting point. The blog has also served as a springboard for acceptance of my own occasional freelance articles in such places as
The Sacramento Bee and
Wired
News. And in 2012,
I testified before the
Institute of Medicine, at its invitation,
during preparation of its $700,000 report on the stem cell agency.
As for how the work is done, the
writing and reporting are performed largely from a sailboat in Mexico and Central America, on which my wife and I live
full-time.
Sometimes that has presented difficulties, but as cellphone and Internet service has improved over the years, the task has
become easier. We make visits back to California regularly during
which I meet with agency officials and others and attend CIRM's
public meetings.
I have focused largely on the policy and business
aspects of the agency because that is where my knowledge and
background lies. During my career, I have covered and edited stories
from the state Capitol for
United Press International and spent 10
years as the business editor of The Sacramento Bee along with editing
prize-winning investigative projects, including the 1992 Pulitzer
Prize-winning series,
“The Monkey Wars,” by
Deborah Blum, who now
teaches at the
University of Wisconsin. I also served two years
and one week with
Jerry Brown during his 1974 campaign for governor
and into his first term.
As for my financial interests, my wife
and I have never had any investments in any enterprise that could
benefit financially from the activities of the stem cell agency
except for possibly through index-based mutual funds over which I
have no control. But like most of world, my family has suffered from
conditions that theoretically could benefit from development of stem
cell therapies.
I am always interested in thoughts and
comments from readers, critical or otherwise. My skin is reasonably thick. I have always told
reporters who have worked for me that if you perform your act in a
public place you should be prepared for any sort of reaction. I
welcome suggestions for stories and improvements.
Feel free to contact me at
djensen@californiastemcell.com. Or if you prefer to withhold your
identity, you can leave a comment anonymously via the “comment”
function at the end of each item.
