Stanford stem cell genomics center funded
Here's a little more information on the situation:
U-T San Diego
Stanford stem cell genomics center funded
By Bradley J. Fikes JAN. 29, 2014
California's stem cell agency granted $40 million Wednesday to study how the use of stem cells for therapy is affected by variations in the human genome.
The Center of Excellence for Stem Cell Genomics will be located at Stanford University. Competing proposals, including one by DNA sequencing giant Illumina and The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, were rejected by the California Institution for Regenerative Medicine.
Backers of the San Diego proposal said CIRM staff reviews of the proposals contained errors, such as including financial considerations when scientific merit was supposed to be the sole consideration. Stanford's proposal was highest-rated in the reviews.
The Stanford proposal earned praise from reviewers for the breadth of its research initiatives, from basic research to disease applications, along with the deep expertise of its scientists. Reviewers also liked the affiliated data management center, which will be located at UC Santa Cruz.
A number of San Diego research institutions will collaborate with Stanford's center. While the center itself will be placed at Stanford, the Salk Institute will participate as a joint principal investigator. The Scripps Research Institute and Illumina will also contribute, along with UC San Diego,and the J. Craig Venter Institute.
The Stanford proposal treats Illumina like a contractor, which doesn’t make the best use of its abilities, said Scripps Research stem cell scientist Jeanne Loring, who attended the meeting. She submitted letters to the board from herself and Illumina explaining the project's benefits.
“I was trying to tap into Illumina’s intellectual power, which is often overlooked because they make most of their money by selling instruments and providing services,” Loring said. “But the people I’d be working with are the ones who invented these technologies.”
Illumina would benefit as a business by creating new markets, Loring said. For example, a test that tells whether stem cells have potentially dangerous mutations would be highly sought after.
Illumina pledged in a letter to CIRM that any products it sells under the agreement would be “accessible, both in price and support.”
Loring said she hopes the Scripps/Illumina proposal can still be funded, but there is no obvious alternative.
Illumina declined to comment.
Joe Panetta, a new member of CIRM’s oversight committee that approved the grant, said the vote gives a substantial amount of representation to San Diego area entities. Panetta is president and chief executive of Biocom, the San Diego-based life science trade group.
As a new member, Panetta said he is not in a position to judge the factors that led up to the decision, but intends to become “a lot more engaged” in the review process leading up to such decisions.
Stanford's original proposal asked for $33 million, but was amended to include $7million more that could go to Scripps Research and other centers that lost out. But Loring told the committee before the vote that the amendment wasn't helpful. Stem cell projects being planned by Scripps scientists are in many cases competitive with Stanford, she said.
Approval of the Stanford-led proposal was called likely on Friday in an article by David Jensen, a former editor of the Sacramento Bee who writes a blog called the California Stem Cell Report. Jensen cited a letter to CIRM from Michael Snyder, director of the Stanford genomics center. Snyder told stem cell agency directors that his group is “very pleased with the overall enthusiasm” for the application.
In a follow-up posted Monday, Jensen detailed what he described as the appearance of a conflict of interest on the part of outgoing CIRM president Alan Trounson, who recommended approval of the Stanford proposal and rejection of the others. CIRM replied that Trounson's participation "was consistent with state law and CIRM policies," wrote Jensen, who has been covering the agency since 2005.
The stem cell institute is responsible for spending $3 billion in taxpayer-funded bond money under Proposition 71, approved by California voters in 2004.
