Nominations for Stem Cell Person of the Year Being Taken This Week

Now is the time nominate a few good men or women for the 2015 Stem Cell Person of the Year.

UC Davis researcher Paul Knoepfler is collecting names for the annual award that he funds with a $2,000 prize. He is looking for the person who had “the biggest positive impact in the stem cell and regenerative medicine world in 2015.”

Knoepfler wrote last week,

 “This award is unique in a number of ways. For example, anyone in the world is eligible to be nominated: both scientists and non-scientists alike. The nominee should also be someone who thought outside the box and took risks, which are novel areas of emphasis for this stem cell and regenerative medicine award.” 

Paul Knoepfler, CIRM photo

The deadline for making nominations is Oct. 13. The finalists will be selected from the nominees by an Internet vote. However, Knoepler himself will choose the ultimate winner. Nominations should be emailed directly to Knoepfler at knoepfler@ucdavis.edu.

Knoepler listed the previous winners last week.

“Dr. Masayo Takahashi won in 2014 and this year also received the inaugural Ogawa-Yamanaka Stem Cell Prize.

“Dr. Elena Cattaneo received the award in 2013 and went on to get the ISSCR Public Service Award in 2014 along with colleagues.

“In 2012 the winner was top stem cell patient advocate Roman Reed, who went on in 2013 to receive the GPI Stem Cell Inspiration Award.”

Researcher Takahashi Honored as Stem Cell Person of the Year

Riken photo

Masayo Takahashi, the scientist in Japan who is leading the first clinical trial involving reprogrammed adult stem cells, today was named the stem cell person of the year.

The announcement was made by Paul Knoepfler, the UC Davis stem cell researcher who sponsors the award and personally funds its $2,000 prize.

Knoepfler said,

“In an astonishing feat, Takahashi's team transplanted its first macular degeneration patient recently on September 12, only 7 years after human IPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) were first ever published.”

The development of IPS cells, which also originated in Japan, has been hailed because they remove the moral objections that some persons have concerning the use of human embryonic stem cells. Many scientists, however, continue to consider the human cells as the gold standard.

Takahashi is a physician-scientist and a faculty member and project leader at the Laboratory of Retinal Regeneration at the Center for Developmental Biology at RIKEN.

Last December, Takahashi said she was wary of the high economic expectations surrounding potential stem cell therapies. In an article in the Financial Times by Jonathan Soble, she said, 

“Start-up companies are already involved and the road to commercialization is there, but to assume that the concept of iPSCs and regenerative medicine will yield a lot of money is naïve. Only parts of the field will become industries. It’s dangerous to think that all of regenerative medicine will.”

Takahashi was introduced to the field of stem science in 1995 when she followed her husband to the Salk Institute in the San Diego area in California.

Soble wrote,

“Paradoxically, because she had chosen clinical research, academia’s mix of glass-ceiling sexism and disdain for applied science worked in her favor. ‘I could do what I wanted because I was a woman,’ she says. ‘I didn’t think about career advancement.’”

She said barriers to women in science have largely disappeared in Japan although the comment was made before the STAP scandal that involved Riken. A key figure in the STAP research was a woman scientist, and persons prejudiced against women in science may well to use it to justify their biases.

Takahashi did say last year that traditional cultural values remain a problem in Japan. She said,

“'Japanese women don’t want to stand out, they don’t want to be leaders. They don’t think, ‘I want to have my own lab and reach the top in my field.’ I certainly didn’t until Salk.’ But Dr. Takahashi believes things are changing, in part because of the growing number of role models such as herself. ‘Sometimes,’ she says, ‘I meet young women who tell me, ‘You’re cool.’”

Twenty-six Nominated for 2014 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award

A distinguished list of nominees was revealed today for the Stem Cell Person of the Year award, whose cash prize has doubled from last year.  

The contest is the brainchild of UC Davis stem cell scientist Paul Knoepfler, who boosted the award from $1,000 to $2,000 this year, all of which comes out his pocket.

Knoepfler this morning posted the names of the 26 nominees, who ranged from Pope Francis to California patient advocate Don Reed. The names were submitted by readers of Knoepfler’s blog, among others.

Nominees included two executives at the $3 billion California stem cell agency, Ellen Feigal and Pat Olson, which expects to have money down on 10 stem cell clinical trials by the end of this year. (Here is a link to the agency's blog item on the contest.)

The list is larded with other worthy nominees including Michael West, CEO of Biotime, Inc., which resurrected the human embryonic stem cell trial abandoned for financial reasons by Geron.

Voting is now underway to whittle the list down to 12 finalists. There is also an “other” category for additional nominations.  The criteria are broad. Knoepfler says the award should go to the “the most positively influential person” in the stem cell field during 2014.

Deadline for voting is Oct. 22. Knoepfler, however, has the only vote that counts for the final selection of the overall winner. During the past two years, he has selected Elena Cattaneo of Italy

and patient advocate Roman Reed of California. (Roman is the son of Don Reed.)

For rules on voting, see here.

The California Stem Cell Report will carry its recommendation for the award later this week.

Italian Researcher Cattaneo Honored as 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year

Elena Cattaneo, EuroStem Photo

Italian stem cell scientist Elena Cattaneo today was named the 2013 Stem Cell Person of the Year for her work as a researcher and her efforts to remove “partisan extremist politics” from financial support for science. 

UC Davis researcher Paul Knoepfler announced his choice this morning on his blog, ipscell.com. Knoepfler began the contest last year and personally provides the $1,000 award. The first winner was Roman Reed, a California patient advocate.

In Knoepfler's announcement, he cited Cattaneo's work on neural stem cells, particularly in connection with possible therapies for Huntington's Disease. Cattaneo is director and co-founder of the Unistem, the center for stem cell research at the University of Milano, Italy, and has been appointed a senator for life in Italy.

Knoepfler also said,

"She is that rare stem cell scientist who goes well above and beyond the call of academic duty to act as an advocate as well."

He said that she has "a track record of taking important public stands on key issues over the years."

Most recently, Knoepfler cited her efforts in connection with an organization called Stamina in Italy that was providing a stem cell therapy to large numbers of patients. The treatment this month was banned from testing in Italy after a panel of scientists determined it was excessively risky and not supported by evidence.

The decision followed a campaign by Cattaneo and others. Knoepfler wrote,

"She and a dozen fellow Italian scientists stood up to what was a flawed Italian governmental decision to allow Stamina to proceed with a gutsy letter. It takes courage to not only do your research, but also to take a stand against your own government's flawed decision and ultimately prevail. Her actions have helped to keep thousands of patients safer and protect the stem cell field."

Her efforts and those of others inspired a play called "Staminalia: A Dream and a Trial," which premiered in Portugal in 2010. According to the EuroStemCell Web site, the play "goes beyond the science of stem cells to tell the story of a stem cell researcher and a mother who sees ethical and political limitations impacting not only into her scientific freedom, but also into her private life."