California's Widening Stem Cell Net

Will Wisconsin scientist Jamie Thomson and Japan's Shinya Yamanaka be ripe for a research grant next year from the California stem cell agency? And perhaps others as well who are located principally outside of California?

CIRM's $3 billion research effort appears to be moving in that direction in its latest RFA for new cell lines, including reprogramming efforts.

For those of you who may have been tuned out last month, Jamie Thomson of the University of Wisconsin and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan, generated international hoopla with their reports that they created pluripotent cells out of adult human skin cells.

Both men did their work outside California, which made them ineligible for funding in the Golden State.

But Thomson is now affiliated with the University of California, Santa Barbara, which has ponied up $1 million to support him at the seaside campus. And Yamanaka is linked to Gladstone Institute in San Francisco. Both men are part of a wave of about 50 stem cell scientists who have come to California since the stem cell institute was created three years ago.

If the money were right, both would seem to be able to meet the CIRM requirement for the grants for the new cell lines that they make a "10 percent effort" on research in California. Other scientists are likely to be able to meet that requirement as well.

The CIRM Oversight Committee indirectly touched on the question of funding such folks as Thomson and Yamanaka at its meeting in October. Neither Thomson nor Yamanaka was mentioned by name. But at one point, Philip Pizzo, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine and a member of the Oversight Committee, asked CIRM staff,

"What if there's an investigator who comes to California for part of her or his work who has an appointment in another state, let's say Wisconsin as a hypothetical, who develops new stem cell lines. and because of an academic affiliation seeks to have those said lines become part of, for example, the Wisconsin policy?"

Pizzo later remarked,

"We would welcome joint appointments or other appointments that would bring new talent to California, recognizing that the individual may be at another place, but I think we just have to understand -- the legal folks will need to understand what that means in terms of institutional controls over IP as well."

The upshot of the discussion seemed to be that the IP would belong to the institution where the research was conducted, and it would be in California. But no legal opinion was rendered by CIRM or policy position taken.

During a later discussion of disease team grants, California stem cell Chairman Robert Klein made it clear that "there is the intent to capture these brilliant scientists who are prepared to make a part-time commitment to California, paying for the time they spend in California."

All of this fits with the aspirations of incoming CIRM President Alan O. Trounson, an Australian who has said broadening the reach of the agency is one of his goals.

Leveraging the Media, Money and Change

One could call it the rhetoric of money and momentum. "Bidding wars," "stealing" and "fierce" competition. It's all are part of the coverage of California stem cell issues that is emerging in the wake of the announcement that a noted Japanese researcher is opening a lab in San Francisco.

Dale Carlson, chief communications officer at the California stem cell agency, fed the generally positive stories with the separate release of a list of nearly 50 other researchers who have moved to California since the passage of Prop. 71. The list turned an already meaty scientific story into an even meatier one – a trend with national and global implications.

Reporter Daniel Levine of the Journal of Life Sciences produced a good example. His Aug. 20 piece was headlined "Money Changes Everything." He wrote that the move by Shinya Yamanaka caps a trend that has "changed the landscape for stem cell research by drawing top scientists to the Golden State."

Levine also queried Stanford, UCLA and UC San Francisco to flesh out the scientific migration and recruitment story.

We are likely to see at least a few more stories along this line as the news filters out from scientific and regional publications.

In another story on the Yamanaka move, reporter Ron Leuty of the San Francisco Business Times said that Yamanaka expects to be reprogramming human cells to create embryonic stem cells in the "next year or two."

Leuty also reported that the scientist is expected eventually to move his entire lab operation to the Gladstone Institutes. Yamanaka has a 20 person lab at Kyoto University. The Gladstone operation is expected to have four to six persons shortly.

Leuty said the "first fellow" in Yamanaka's California operation is funded by a grant from the California stem cell agency.

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