Showing posts with label rao. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rao. Show all posts

Friday, April 25, 2014

Post-Mortem on NIH and its Stem Cell Center Action

An interesting discussion is underway in comments on this blog concerning the shuttering of the NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine and the departure of its leader, Mahendra Roa.

It involves priorities, strategy and funding, which one anonymous commentator says was inadequate. Researcher Jeanne Loring of Scripps has also weighed in with her thoughts. Among other things, she said that Rao did tremendous work and that the California stem cell agency should "embrace his ideas." Another scientist says some of the problems stemmed from failure to negotiate the bureaucratic byways of the NIH with the necessary skill. All the remarks can be found in a comment string on the NIH item. 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

NIH Action on Stem Cells: More Than 'Bureaucratic Bungling'

A national stem cell advocacy group this week ripped the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for “dismantling” its Center for Regenerative Medicine, describing the move as a "setback" for the entire field.

Bernard Siegel
GPI photo
The Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) said the action was a “huge disappointment” in an email sent out internationally by Bernard Siegel, executive director of the group, which stages the heavily attended World Stem Cell Summit.

The NIH move also has implications for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), whose $3 billion program is down to its last $600 million.

The GPI was reacting to news in the journal Nature that the NIH said its center “will not continue in its present form.” The head of the NIH program, Mahendra Rao, took a job this month with the New York Stem Cell Foundation. James Anderson, director of the NIH’s Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, told Nature that the $52 million NIH effort was going to be rethought following a workshop in May.

Siegel said,
“The dismantling of the program appears to be a retreat by the United States from the translational imperative and a setback for the field at large. The patient community will be looking to Dr. Collins(head of the NIH) and others in NIH leadership to fulfill their commitment to stem cell development as a singular priority. Other countries are pouring in resources and moving full steam ahead. The NIH’s failure to continue the program represents more than just a case bureaucratic bungling. What we see here is a lack of vision and a public relations blunder. Years of valuable work and planning just tossed away. The scientific community and the public rightfully believes regenerative medicine will one day provide innovative treatments and cures to chronic diseases. The decision to tear down the Center for Regenerative Medicine, without first providing an alternative plan, undermines the credibility of NIH. A huge disappointment."

Asked for a response this week by the California Stem Cell Report, Amanda Fine, a public affairs specialist at the NIH, said in an email,
“The NIH Intramural Center for Regenerative Medicine has not closed.  This is a fast evolving area of science and NIH decided to step back and reassess what the field needs in 2014 and beyond and where NIH can have the greatest impact. NIH is holding a workshop tentatively scheduled for May 5 that will convene a group of experts in the field to address current obstacles to translation of cell therapies and will help prioritize a number of requirements that the larger community has articulated through white papers over the past two years.  NIH will consider the feedback from the workshop and establish a set of goals for the CRM.

Initially, Fine asked that the NIH statement not be attributed to a specific individual but later
said it could be attributed to James Anderson, who also made the statements to Nature.

Public details of the NIH program and its problems are murky. But the NIH action has implications for the California stem cell agency, which is scheduled to run out of cash for new awards in 2017. The agency is attempting to raise funds to continue beyond that point.

The agency could use the news to argue that now, more than ever, it is necessary to support stem cell research efforts in California because of weak federal support, which ebbs and flows depending on political vagaries. On the other hand, some might interpret the NIH rollback as a sign that those well-informed in the field have judged it to be less-than-ready for prime time, an argument that could be extended to California's efforts.

What the NIH action clearly does is create more uncertainty concerning progress in stem cell research. Uncertainty is an anathema to businesses that may be considering where to invest hundreds of millions of dollars.

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