Stanford Report, February 9, 2005

Gatekeepers for state stem cell funds being recruited

BY MICHELLE L. BRANDT

California is taking another step toward the distribution of millions of dollars in state funds for stem cell research: Candidates to serve on the committee charged with awarding the grants will be identified as early as Monday.

This development was announced at last week's meeting of the governing board of the state's California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was created by the passage of Proposition 71. This was the third meeting of the 29-member governing board (the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, or ICOC), which includes School of Medicine Dean Philip Pizzo, MD.

State statutes require that 15 nationally recognized stem cell scientists, along with seven members of the ICOC, serve on the Scientific and Medical Research Funding Working Group—the group responsible for deciding which grants should receive state funds. Under Prop. 71, the state has authorized the allocation of nearly $3 billion over the next 10 years for stem cell work.

The ICOC is charged with recruiting and selecting the members of this working group, which will likely be a mix of basic scientists and physician scientists.

Edward Holmes, MD, dean of UC-San Diego's medical school and chair of the ICOC subcommittee overseeing the establishment of the grant-making panel, said he is now gathering names of potential candidates and that Monday is the deadline for individuals and professional organizations to submit nominees. Holmes' subcommittee will sift through the names and make its recommendations to the full ICOC.

At last week's meeting, ICOC members discussed the critical qualifications for those who will serve on this Scientific and Medical Research Funding Working Group.

ICOC member Sherry Lansing, chair of Paramount Pictures, said the subcommittee should "go for the best scientists," but another board member pointed out that not all scientists are good grant reviewers. Claire Pomeroy, MD, executive associate dean at UC-Davis' medical school and also a panel member, expressed concern that no ethicists will be part of the working group. "We don't want to exclude non-traditional research due to the make-up of the committee," she said.

Holmes' subcommittee also recommended that the institute establish three types of grants: training grants, seed grants (expected to be in the range of $50,000 to $150,000 per year) and Center of Excellence grants (expected to be in the range of $5 million to $7 million per year). The ICOC will vote on this recommendation at a future meeting.

At another point in the meeting, David Kessler, MD, dean of the UC-San Francisco medical school and an ICOC member, gave an update on a second subcommittee—the Scientific and Medical Accountability Standards Working Group—which he chairs. That group is responsible for developing scientific, medical and ethical standards for the institute,

According to Kessler, the subcommittee is looking for input from state health officials, as the legislature enacted a law in 2003 requiring the Department of Health to develop guidelines for embryonic stem cell research.

In the meantime, Kessler reported that the subcommittee was recommending that the ICOC authorize an independent consultant, who has no direct ties to the National Institutes of Health, to help develop conflict of interest standards.

Pizzo requested that one conflict of interest policy be immediately adopted—that ICOC members be prohibited from applying for research grants. "There should be no ambiguity about this," he said. The committee will vote on the motion at its next meeting.

The ICOC also made headway in two critical administrative matters: the hiring of the institute's president and the opening of its offices. The committee chose the search firm Spencer Stewart to lead the hunt for a president, and Robert Klein, the ICOC chair, announced that Emeryville will serve as the institute's temporary home. Staff will move on Friday into the new space, which is being provided rent-free for the next seven months.

Despite the institute's new quarters, the ICOC will continue moving from site to site for its meetings over the next several months. (Last week's meeting was in San Diego; next month's meeting will be in the Bay Area.) Committee members expressed support for the revolving venues, and several remarked that changing locations gives more people an opportunity to attend the meetings while increasing committee members' familiarity with research institutions across the state.