Mahendra Rao NIH photo |
Speculation surfaced this week but was
quickly squelched that Mahendra Rao, until recently the head of the
federal Center for Regenerative Medicine, is a candidate to become
the new president of the $3 billion California stem cell agency.
Rao's departure from the NIH's $52
million stem cell effort took many by surprise yesterday when it
surfaced in an online story from Nature. The piece by Sara Reardon said that Rao left the NIH on March 28 and that the move has left NIH
researchers “in the dark.”
She wrote,
“Relations seem to have soured last month owing to an NIH decision to award funding to only one project aiming to move iPS cells into a clinical trial. Rao says he resigned after this became clear. He says that he had hoped that five trials would be funded, especially because the centre had already sorted out complex issues relating to tissue sources, patents and informed consent.”
In the wake of the story, the California Stem Cell Report learned that Rao is not a current candidate for the California stem
cell agency position. He is also not expected to take a fulltime
research position in California. Rao did not respond to an email inquiry about the matter. (The New York Stem Cell Foundation announced later that it has hired Rao as vice president for regenerative medicine.)
Rao's departure from the NIH was
reported as early as March 3 in a little-noticed press release from
Cesca Therapeutics of Rancho Cordova, Ca.. The Sacramento-area firm
was formerly known as Thermogenesis. The company said that Rao was
joining its board of directors April 1 following his “planned departure” in March from the NIH.
Yesterday, Stemedica Cell Technologies
of San Diego announced that Rao was joining its scientific advisory
board. Stemedica was mentioned in a New York Times story last September involving international medical tourism. The company's Web site says it “is currently supporting clinical trials in Kazakhstan
and Mexico and anticipates supporting similar initiatives in several
other countries in 2013.”
Meanwhile, the agency is still on
schedule to hire a new CEO by the end of May, according to Kevin
McCormack, senior director of public communications. The current
president, Alan Trounson, announced last fall that he was leaving to
return to his family in Australia.
The agency's presidential search
committee has scheduled a two-day, closed-door meeting for next
Tuesday and Wednesday to screen candidates. According to the agency's
timetable, the teleconference session is intended to produce the
finalists for the job, who will undergo additional interviews either
late this month or early next month. A vote by the agency's
29-member governing board is expected at its meeting in San Diego May
29.
Next week's meeting does provide for
comment from members of the public, who can attend the public portion
of the meeting. The main location is in Los Angeles, The address can
be found on the meeting agenda.