Pera Cites Personal and Professional Reasons for Returning to Australia

Scientist Martin Pera said tonight that he was departing as head of the USC stem cell research program for both personal reasons and an opportunity to help lead a national consortium in Australia.

Pera also said that disposition of the $7.4 million in grants from CIRM in which he is the principal investigator is under discussion with the agency, USC and himself.

Pera came to California in 2006 from Australia to launch the USC stem cell effort.

His comments came in response to a query from the California Stem Cell Report. Here is the text of what he emailed.

"It has been a fantastic and very rewarding experience to serve as the Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC. I am very grateful for the support of the Broad Foundation, the University of Southern California, and CIRM in this endeavor. I have been able to bring on board some great young scientists who are doing exciting and innovative stem cell research, and to work with clinical colleagues on some very promising new therapeutic approaches in regenerative medicine. The University is fully committed to recruiting a world class scientist to guide the Center through its next stage in development.

"The opportunity to help lead a national stem cell research consortium in Australia, alongside personal considerations, were key factors in my decision to move to the University of Melbourne, a top ranked institution in biomedical research.

"The disposition of the CIRM grants on which I am Principal Investigator is a matter under discussion between the Keck School of Medicine, CIRM, and myself, but there is no question of these funds being used to support research conducted outside of the State of California."

In an aside, Pera said he has "always enjoyed" the California Stem Cell Report.

Pera Leaving Golden State for Down Under

Internationally reknown stem cell researcher Martin Pera, who holds $7.4 million in California stem cell grants, is leaving the state to return to Australia to head the stem cell program at the University of Melbourne.

Martin Pera
USC Photo

In a March 7 memo to staff at USC's Keck School of Medicine, Dean Carmen Puliafito said that Pera will assume his new job in Australia on June 1 but plans on remaining "actively engaged" with colleagues at USC during the 2011-12 academic year.  Pera joined USC in 2006 to launch the school's stem cell program.

Pera was the first director of USC's stem cell effort, which began following the passage of Prop. 71 in 2004, the measure that created the $3 billion California stem cell agency. A good portion of Pera's motivation for coming to the state was widely believed to be the availability of generous stem cell research funding here. During Pera's tenure, USC has garnered $72 million in CIRM grants, ranking 5th among state institutions.

Pera is the principal investigator on three grants from the California stem cell agency. It is not clear how those grants will be dealt with. By law, CIRM cannot finance research outside of California. We have queried CIRM and Pera concerning the status of the research.

(Pera responded following the publication of this item, saying that the grants are under discussion by the various parties. He also cited personal as well professional reasons for returning to Australia.)

Pera, a former colleague of CIRM President Alan Trounson when they were both in Australia, has personal ties to Australia and has wanted to return, one researcher told the California Stem Cell Report today.

USC's Puliafito, a member of the CIRM governing board, said an international search is underway for Pera's successor. USC is likely to seek help from CIRM's $44 million recruiting fund.

CIRM Directors to Take Position on Affordability, Accountability Measure

Directors of the California stem cell agency on March 4 will take their first public look at new legislation aimed at ensuring affordable access to therapies financed by taxpayers, including proposals to improve accountability and openness at the state research effort.

Also on the table at the meeting of the directors' Legislative Subcommittee is legislation to create a state board to deal with umbilical cord-blood matters.

Already three leaders on the CIRM board, Chairman Robert Klein, vice chairmen Art Torres and Duane Roth, have publicly opposed the affordability and accountability legislation as unnecessary. The CIRM board has successfully resisted every effort over the last few years by lawmakers to make changes in agency operations.

However, this year CIRM has declared that it needs to bypass the voter-approved limit on its staff at 50 persons, an action that the legislation would allow. The restriction was written into the law via Prop. 71 by Klein and others along with caps on agency spending. On the surface, removing the cap would seem to require a 70 percent vote of the legislature, also imposed by Prop. 71. But Klein says the agency is considering unspecified alternatives that would not require a vote of the legislature to avoid the restriction.

Earlier this month, Sen. Elaine Kontominas Alquist of San Jose, chair of the Senate Health Committee, introduced the accountability legislation (SB1064), declaring that CIRM is “essentially accountable to no one.” Introduction of the measure followed recommendations from a sister state panel to CIRM, calling for increased openness and transparency. The action apparently triggered two harsh newspaper editorials concerning CIRM.

The umbilical cord blood measure (AB52) is authored by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena. In addition to creating a new state board beginning next January and raising fees on copies of birth certificates to fund it, the measure specifically mentions CIRM. It says,

"California pioneered the first sibling donor cord blood pilot project, and is a world leader in the more general area of stem cell research and its medical applications through the establishment and funding of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). This makes California ideally situated to become the leader in harnessing the therapeutic potential of nonhematopoietic cord blood-derived stem and progenitor cells."

In addition to the Legislative Subcommittee location at CIRM headquarters in San Francisco, the public can participate in the session at teleconference locations in La Jolla, Davis and Menlo Park. The specific addresses should be posted on the agenda in the next day or two. Comments also may be submitted to the board via email.

LA Times Columnist Targets CIRM; Structural Changes Needed

The California stem cell agency, which has “self-righteously” opposed better public oversight of its activities, should be altered to create a research program that “exemplifies not only good science, but good government,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist said today in the Los Angeles Times.

While noting that the agency has funded “important work,” Michael Hiltzik said,

“...(I)t's ridiculous for CIRM to maintain that increased legislative oversight and a more compact and objective board are inimical to its purpose of fostering stem cell research in California.”

Hiltzik, whose piece was the 10th most viewed article on the Times Web site early this morning, first wrote about the agency during the political campaign that created it in 2004. His latest article came after he attended last week's session of a key state panel that unanimously called for more openness and accountability from CIRM. The panel, the Citizens Financial Accountability Oversight Committee, is chaired by state Controller John Chiang, who is the state's top fiscal officer.

Hiltzik said that the $3 billion agency came under withering fire at the meeting of the committee, which is part of Prop. 71, the same measure that created the stem cell agency.

Hiltzik focused on comments by committee member Loren Lipson, a physician and research scientist at USC. (The dean of the USC medical school sits on the CIRM board of directors. USC has received $71 millions from CIRM.)

Hiltzik wrote,

“Lipson objected to CIRM's practice of keeping the identities of grant applicants secret until and unless they win a grant. He thinks that without full transparency, it's impossible to know whether the scientific peer reviewers or the board have shown undue favoritism to the victors.

“That's especially a problem, Lipson believes, because the stem cell research community is small and so much of the board is, by design, self-interested. 'To me it looks like an old-boys club,' he told me after the meeting. 'When I look at that board I get a bad feeling of impropriety.'

“CIRM officials assured him that conflicts of interest aren't a problem on the board or among its scientific peer review teams, but he remains unimpressed. 'They never really answered my questions,' he says.”

Hiltzik, the author of three nonfiction books and winner of one of the top prizes in financial journalism, also discussed CIRM's new-found desire to change one provision of Prop. 71: the 50-person cap on the size of its staff.

He wrote,

“The good news for taxpayers is that the program's request for more staff could open the door for our elected representatives to finally insist on some jurisdiction over the spending of our $3 billion -- $6 billion including interest on the state bonds with which the money is raised. The key questions are these: Is it being spent appropriately, and is it being spent without conflicts of interest? On both issues, there's reason for doubt. Unfortunately, the program has managed to fend off every effort by elected officials to weigh in.

“The 50-employee limit was trumpeted by Proposition 71's supporters as proof that the program would be lean and mean, with almost all the money going to science. You might think they must have known from the start that managing a $3-billion scientific research program would require a larger staff, but then that would make them look cynical, and who wants to do that?”

Hiltzik continued,

“There's no question that CIRM has funded important work and bolstered the state's research profile. And there's no reason to doubt that CIRM needs more staff scientists to make sure grant recipients are spending our money properly, especially since the program is about to start doling out loans to commercial companies, not just grants to academics.

“But it's ridiculous for CIRM to maintain that increased legislative oversight and a more compact and objective board are inimical to its purpose of fostering stem cell research in California. CIRM mouthpieces love to claim that the 'voters' intent' should be honored by keeping the program rigorously free of political oversight -- but then the voters' intent was also to give it 50 staff members, and not a soul more.

“Nothing requires the Legislature to crack open the door on Proposition 71 only as far as CIRM wishes. The Legislature should let the program have the additional staff, but on its own terms. These should include a change in CIRM's board structure and imposition of the sort of oversight the program should have had in the first place -- including a reduction in the requirement for legislative amendments from 70% to a bare majority and giving Chiang the broader authority he requested. That's the way to create a public stem cell research program that exemplifies not only good science, but good government.”

Prop. 71 Fallout: Bond Guru Assails California Voter Initiatives

Bond maven Bill Gross kicked off October by lashing out at California's “perverted” form of government including ballot measures such as Prop. 71, which he said have have “almost tragically shaped” the state's laws.

Gross made his remarks in his monthly commentary, which is widely followed in the financial community. The Southern California resident is the head of the $178 billion Pimco Total Return Fund. He is also a backer of stem cell research at UC Irvine to the tune of $10 million.

For those of you not familiar with ballot measures, Prop. 71 is the voter initiative that created California's $3 billion stem cell agency, which uses borrowed money to finance scientific research for the first time in the nation's history.

Gross deplored the current financial state of affairs in California, which he likened to dog excrement. He wrote:

“Perhaps more than any other state, California has been affected by its perverted form of government, requiring a two-thirds vote by state legislators to effectively pass a budget. In addition, the state’s laws are almost tragically shaped by a form of direct democracy more resemblant of the Jacksonian era, where the White House furniture was constantly at risk due to unruly citizens, high on whisky, and low on morals and common sense. Propositions from conservatives and liberals alike have locked up much of the budget, with Proposition 13 in 1978 reducing property taxes by 57% and Prop. 98 in 1988 requiring 40% of the general fund to be spent on schools.”

Gross continued,

“What is critical to recognize is that both California and the U.S., as well as numerous global lookalikes such as the U.K., Spain, and Eastern European invalids, are in a poor position to compete in a global economy where capitalism is morphing from its decades-long emphasis on finance and levered risk taking to a more conservative, regulated, production-oriented system advantaged by countries focusing on thrift and deferred gratification.”

Prop. 71 is just one of the ballot measures that California voters have approved over the years, although its impact ($6-$7 billion with interest) is tiny compared to the examples that Gross cited.

Nonetheless, government by ballot measure is a poor way to regularly do the people's business. Indeed, one of the chief obstacles to the smooth functioning of the stem cell agency is, in fact, the ballot measure that created it. Like some smothering parent, Prop. 71 effectively prevents the agency from making much-needed changes in its operations, ranging from removing the poorly conceived 50-person staff limit to changing its super-majority quorum requirements, which continue to make it difficult for its board of directors to do business. The board's own attorney earlier this year declared that CIRM is handcuffed. He said that it is impossible for the board or the legislature to make important reforms (see the the Little Hoover Commission findings) without going to another vote of the people, an exceedingly unlikely event, short of a major scandal at the stem cell agency.

(Editor's note: An earlier version of this item did not contain the reference to Gross' $10 million contribution.)

No IOUs for California stem cell researchers

The State of California began printing IOUs this afternoon to pay its bills because of a $26 billion budget crisis, but stem cell researchers funded by the state need not worry.

That's because the California stem cell agency is immune – for the time being – from fallout from the financial debacle.

The ballot measure, Prop. 71, that created CIRM gave the research effort special legal status. The governor and legislature cannot touch the agency's funding.

CIRM is not the only state agency that is isolated from all the effects of the budget mess. While most state employees are facing a nearly 5 percent pay cut from just last month on top of previous cuts, the the California Highway Patrol is likely to see a pay raise, according to Jon Ortiz of The Sacramento Bee.

Diana Lambert, also of The Bee, reported that the budget pain has not yet “trickled up” to leaders of the University of California system. She reported salaries of $295,000 to $450,000 for UC chancellors along with generous benefits.

Lambert continued,

“The salaries and perks continue despite cuts to freshman enrollment next year, fee increases at some professional schools of as much as 50 percent and student fee hikes of nearly 17 percent over two years.”

At a troubled California regional transit agency, some “foreworkers” are pulling down six figure salaries, including overtime, that run as high as $218,621, according to Daniel Borenstein of the San Mateo Times.

The inequities illustrate the difficulties in dealing with the California cash crisis, which extends into local and regional entities as well as state government. The governor and lawmakers cannot by law reach into all fiscal corners of the state in their efforts to make semi-rational cuts.

One of the reasons for that is government by ballot initiatives, such as Prop. 71, which hamstring legislators – for good reasons and bad – when they try to deal with both policy and budget matters.

CIRM's operational budget is tight overall, probably tighter than many state agencies, although some might quarrel with its priorities, documentation and justification. And scientists certainly should not see their multi-year projects shelved and research basically lost because of state financial vagaries. Midstream loss of funding would throw away much of the original investment.

But that doesn't mean that ballot initiatives such as Prop. 71 represent good government or good policy. Indeed, Prop. 71 itself is one of CIRM's worst enemies as it hampers the board and creates conflicts of interests that are all but impossible to resolve.

Dodging the Salary Bullet

Most of the time we write about things that affect CIRM. Here is one thing that won't – legislation to freeze salaries of high paid state employees.

The measure, AB 53, would impose a two-year ban on raises of about 785 state employees who make more than $150,000 annually. It is now before Assembly Appropriations Committee after winning unanimous approval from the Assembly Public Employees Committee on April 1.

The logic behind the bill by Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada, is that well-paid state employees should share the pain of budget cuts affecting children, seniors and so forth. The California stem cell agency has a bunch of folks who make more than $150,000 – too many in the eyes of some critics.

However, California lawmakers are politically unable to touch the agency because of Prop. 71, which requires an unprecedented 70 percent, super-majority vote of both houses and the signature of the governor to change state law affecting CIRM.

The significance of the legislation concerning CIRM is that high salaries are a red flag issue for the public even though they may be justified. Check out some of the comments on the story in The Sacramento Bee on the measure.

What Bob Klein and CIRM Owe George Bush

Here is what Hank Campbell, the major domo of scientificblogging.com, says,

 "Whether you agreed with Bush or not, his restrictions on stem cell research were good for science - California alone threw $3 billion at human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research for no other reason than that Bush was against it, something that could never have occurred through the NIH, and scientists also found creative alternatives, also something that would probably not have happened."

California Supplier? A Minor Question Involving Stem Cell Millions

California lawmakers are barreling ahead with an effort to tell the state's stem cell agency how to define "California supplier," a move aimed at assisting the Golden State's biotech industry.

The legislation would ensure that California firms that make research tools and life science supplies receive a preference over out-of-state businesses in connection with CIRM-funded research. The potential benefit could run to tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions.

The measure – AB 2381 -- by Gene Mullin, D-San Mateo, unanimously cleared the Assembly last week (May 1) on a 70-0 vote and is now in the Senate, where its prospects appear good.

At the same time, CIRM directors are scheduled to consider their own action on California suppliers during their meeting Tuesday and Wednesday. However, the agency has not yet posted proposed definitions of the term on its web site.

The topic came before CIRM directors (the Oversight Committee or ICOC) last March. Two lawmakers made an unusual appearance before CIRM directors, urging them to move quickly on the matter.

Attorney John Valencia of Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney of Sacramento, representing the stem cell firm Invitrogen, also reminded directors that the issue has been lingering for more than year. In January of this year, Valencia wrote a letter to the agency that led to the matter being placed before directors.

The issue centers on language in Prop. 71 that says:

"The ICOC (CIRM's board of directors) shall establish standards to ensure that grantees purchase goods and services from California suppliers to the extent reasonably possible, in a good faith effort to achieve a goal of more than 50 percent of such purchases from California suppliers."

However, the term California suppliers is not defined.

Mullin's bill, which is backed by at least one biotech industry group, would define supplier in this manner:

"any sole proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, corporation, or other business entity, the owners or policymaking officers of which are domiciled in California and whose permanent, principal office or place of business from which the supplier's trade is directed or managed is located in California."

CIRM directors appeared to make it clear at their March meeting that they wanted to move forward separately on defining California supplier. But Mullin's bill holds their feet to the fire.

If his bill passes and is signed by the governor, it would be the first legislation enacted that would affect CIRM, which enjoys special protection from legislative or gubernatorial tinkering. Prop. 71 requires a unique and unprecedented super, super-majority vote of both houses (70 percent) to enact an law dealing with the stem cell agency.

Presumably CIRM would go some extremes to prevent passage of the bill and avoid a precedent that would make it easier to pass more sweeping legislation involving the agency.

Buried News: William Bowes, UCSB and Jamie Thomson

In the increasingly rarefied atmosphere of stem cell philanthropy, a $3 million gift does not necessarily make big headlines. Especially when it goes to a school outside of the small circle of stem cell stars.

So last week when one of the founders of Amgen, William Bowes(see photo), gave that amount to the University of California campus at Santa Barbara(UCSB), it hardly caused a ripple in the media.

Something similar occurred earlier this year when renown University of Wisconsin stem cell researcher Jamie Thomson became affiliated as an unpaid, adjunct professor with UCSB. It was nearly a non-announcement and received little initial attention. But the school put together a $1 million package for him and is building a lab.

All of which reflects very much on the way the California media works. If it doesn't happen in Los Angeles or San Francisco, it is not likely to receive much notice.

But more particularly none of the news reports on the donation put it together with Thomson's presence at UCSB, which is very much a part-time thing. But it is hard to resist speculating that Thomson and UCSB could draw ever closer.

The press release from school, which stands on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific just north of Santa Barbara, quoted Michael Witherell, UCSB vice chancellor for research, as saying:

"UCSB is bringing to stem cell research its characteristic approach of integrating science and engineering in a single center. The Ruth Garland Chair is central to this approach, because it allows us to attract a researcher of national stature to lead the new center."

The $3 million donation was given by Bowes in memory of his mother, Ruth Garland. She was born in Santa Barbara and raised in nearby Ojai. Her grandparents settled in Santa Barbara in 1855. Educated as a physican at Stanford , she participated in a major diabetics study with William Sansum in Santa Barbara. A nonprofit research facility in Santa Barbara bears his name. It was one of the first places in the United States to do studies on insulin after it was discovered.

We asked Dennis Clegg, chairman of the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology Department and director of the Training Program in Stem Cell Biology at UCSB, about the donation. He replied,

"The gift will allow us to bring in senior talent in the stem cell field to be director of a new center, which will allow us to build on our rapidly growing program in stem cell research, and we are really excited about it. We have had interest in the position from the US and abroad. We have already formed a search committee and will be inviting candidates for interviews in the near future."

Incidentally, UCSB has received nearly $3.5 million in funding from the California stem cell agency during the past two years. You can see Thomson's talk that he gave at UCSB last spring by going to this web page.

Gaining Brains in California

Thomson, now Yamanaka, plus nearly 50 more. So goes the count of a stem cell scientists dipping their toes – if not their entire corpus – into the California stem cell pool.

A few days ago, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University said he was opening a lab at the Gladstone Intitutes in San Francisco. Yamanaka excited the stem cell world recently with his work in reprogramming adult stem cells to return an embryonic state. Earlier this year, UC Santa Barbara said Jamie Thomson of the University of Wisconsin was establishing a lab at the seaside campus.

Dale Carlson, chief communications officer for the California stem cell agency, said the state is a becoming a mecca for stem cell researchers. He produced a list (see item below) of nearly 50 who have come to California since Prop. 71 created CIRM and funded it with $3 billion in state bonds.

The headline on the story by Mary Anne Ostrom in the San Jose Mercury News read, "Japanese scientist's move reflects state's rising clout." David Hamilton's piece on Venture Beat described Yamanaka's move as "certainly a coup," likening it to a "brain gain." But he also said Yamanaka will be spending only a week a month in San Francisco for the next year or two. Rob Waters of Bloomberg quoted CIRM interim chief scientific director Arlene Chiu as saying it was a "great coup" for Gladstone and California. Steven Edwards of Wired.com called Yamanaka "one of the hottest prizes in stem cell reasearch."

Here is a link to the Gladstone press release. See the item below regarding moves by other scientists to California.

Names of Stem Cell Researchers Moving to California Since Prop. 71

Here is the list of stem cell scientists who have come to California since January 2005 following the passage of Prop. 71. The list was prepared by the state's stem cell agency. Scientists that it is currently funding have figures next to their names.

Migration of Stem Cell Researchers to California
(Since January 2005)

Established stem cell investigators who moved to California:

Martin Pera, Ph.D., from Monash University (Australia) to USC

Michael Clarke, M.D., from the University of Michigan to Stanford

Stephan Heller, Ph.D., from Harvard to Stanford $2,469,373

Peter Donovan, Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins to UC Irvine $2,509,438

Jan Aileen Nolta, Ph.D., from Washington University to UC Davis

Gerhard Bauer, M.D., from Washington University to UC Davis

David Rowitch, M.D., from Harvard to UCSF

Benoit Bruneau, Ph.D., from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto to a joint appointment at the Gladstone Institutes and UCSF

Michael Kahn, Ph.D., from University of Washington to USC;

M. Ian Phillips, Ph.D., from University of South Florida to USC

Deepak Srivastava, M.D. from University of Texas to the Gladstone Institutes and UCSF
$3,164,000

Markus Muschen, M.D., Ph.D., from Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and USC

Ronald Li, Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins to UC Davis

Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D., from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to UC Davis


Young investigators who trained in top labs and moved to California:

Noburo Sato, Ph.D. from lab of Brivanlou at Rockefeller to UC, Riverside

Qi-Long Ying, Ph.D. from lab of Austin Smith, Institute for Stem Cell Research at University of Edinburgh to USC

Kara McCloskey, Ph.D. from Nerem's lab at Georgia Tech to UC Merced

Xianmin Zeng, Ph.D. from Rao's lab at NIH to Buck; Institute $4,140,162

Kathrin Plath, Ph.D., from Jaenisch's lab at MIT to UCLA

Robert Blelloch, M.D., Ph.D., from Jaenisch's lab at MIT to UCSF $631,831

Holger Willenbring, M.D., from Grompe's lab in Oregon to UCSF $342,962

Tiziano Barberi joined City of Hope from Lorenz Studer's lab at Sloan

April Pyle was recruited to UCLA from the Donovan lab at Johns Hopkins

Gage Crump, Ph.D., from Kimmel’s lab at University of Oregon to USC

Tod Kippin, Ph.D., from Van Der Kooy’s lab at University of Toronto to UC Santa Barbara

Leslie Lock, Ph.D., from the Donovan lab at Johns Hopkins to UC Irvine

Gautam Dravid, Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

Dennis Evseenko, M.D., Ph.D., from New Zealand to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

Andrew Cuddihy, Ph.D., from Canada to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

Hanna Mikkola, M.D., Ph.D., from Harvard to UCLA $577,037

William Lowry, Ph.D., from Rockefeller University to UCLA $571,575

Bennett Novitch, Ph.D., from University of Michigan to UCLA

Ping Zhou, Ph.D., from Nolta lab at Washington University to UC Davis

Suzanne Pontow, Ph.D., from Nolta lab at Washington University to UC Davis

Camie Chan, Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins to UC Davis

Wenbin Deng, Ph.D., from Harvard/Children's Hospital Boston to UC Davis

Chong-Xian-Pan, Ph.D., from the University of Indiana to UC Davis

James Byrne, Ph.D., from Oregon Health Sciences University to Stanford



Established stem cell scientists with part-time appointments in California:

James Thomson, Ph.D. – UC Santa Barbara (University of Wisconsin)

Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D. – Gladstone Institutes and UCSF (Kyoto University)

Nissim Benvenisty, M.D. – Cedars-Sinai (Hebrew University)

Michal Schwartz, Ph.D. – Cedars-Sinai (Weizmann Institute of Science)

Dan Gazit, Ph.D., D.M.D. – Cedars-Sinai (Hebrew University)

Clive Svendsen, Ph.D. – Stanford (University of Wisconsin)


Private Sector:

Mahendra Rao, M.D., Ph.D., from NIH to Invitrogen and UC Irvine

Advanced Cell Technologies (Michael West, Ph.D.) has expanded with a new facility in Alameda

Stem Cell Sciences (Peter Mountford, President and CEO) is expanding into California from the UK

Melissa Carpenter, Ph.D., from Canada to CyThera, Inc. in San Diego


Transfers within California:

Emmanuelle Passegue, Ph.D., from Stanford to UCSF

Wange Lu, Ph.D., from Caltech to USC

Renee Reijo Pera, Ph.D., from UCSF to Stanford $2,469,104

David Telander, M.D., from Jules Stein Eye Institute/UCLA to UC Davis

Amander Clark, Ph.D., from UCSF to UCLA

08/15/07

Thomson Report Carried by Nature, Chronicle of Higher Education

Nature magazine and the Chronicle of Higher Education have picked up a report from this blog on Jamie Thomson's ties to UC Santa Barbara.

The report in Nature briefly discussed the flap involving the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation's ownership on patents originating from Thomson's work on human embryonic stem cells.

The Chronicle's story on its news blog cited the Nature item as its source. Both publications also mentioned this blogger's report, noting that the Thomson connection helped UCSB win a $2.3 million grant from CIRM.

Thomson's New Lab Under Construction In Santa Barbara

Ever so quietly, eminent stem cell researcher Jamie Thomson is coming to California – at least part-time.

The move has attracted little public notice. The news has oozed out, much as tar seeps onto the sandy beaches of Santa Barbara, where Thomson's new lab is under construction on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

His appointment as an unpaid adjunct professor at the University of California campus there has definitely produced something less than big headlines.

But Thomson's impending presence did play an indirect role in helping to secure a $2.3 million grant for the campus from the California stem cell agency.

The CIRM review of the UCSB grant repeatedly referred to Thomson, who works fulltime at the University of Wisconsin, without naming him. It noted that UCSB, which has five Nobel Laureates, came up with $1 million to establish Thomson's lab. The review said “that the close proximity of the recently-recruited PI will keep the effort (meaning management of CIRM-funded research) state-of-the-art.”

The review continued:

“There was continued discussion on the nature of the interactions with the newly-recruited PI (Thomson). The letter from this PI describes the establishment of a satellite lab at the home institution and four collaborations, three of which have been initiated (including one with the PD), and one of which is to be initiated. This new PI offers experience in growing cells in serum-free, feeder-free conditions. How this PI will work out the situation with a satellite lab is unclear, but s/he suggests that 5-8 people will be working on-site at the applicant institution. It was noted that this PI will provide advice and consultation but there was no percent effort commitment nor any indication of how much time s/he would spend at the institution.”

We should note that the grant was not for Thomson's work.

The only California story we have seen on Thomson's appointment is a five-paragraph article by Nick Welsh in the Independent, a free weekly newspaper in Santa Barbara. Welsh quoted Dale Carlson, chief communications officer for CIRM, as saying:

"This is a great coup for Santa Barbara. He is one of the finest, if not the very finest, researcher in the field."