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CALIFORNIA: UCSD Chancellor Says Stem-Cell Possibilities Unlimited By: BRUCE KAUFFMAN - Staff Writer SOURCE: North County Times, CA WWWeb: http://tinyurl.com/45z8j Last modified Wednesday, November 24, 2004 11:11 AM PST SAN MARCOS ---- The chancellor of UC San Diego said Tuesday that the university is poised to explore the possibilities of stem-cell research, after voters approved Proposition 71, allowing the state to sell $3 billion in bonds to finance such research. Marye Anne Fox, who was named in April as the seventh chief of the UCSD campus, said she expects that the money yielded from the Nov. 2 ballot measure will finance cutting-edge research that may well spin off to bring the region a strong presence in the biomedical field. Fox, who met with North County Times editors and reporters at the newspaper's Escondido office, said a lot of researchers in the life sciences have been looking for the kind of work the stem-cell initiative will yield. The university, she said, can tap into this "overabundance of talent" as it pursues this study. "In a positive sense," Fox said, "we're ripe for the people who can lead this revolution." She said it will be "fascinating" to watch how the state money ---- $300 million a year over 10 years ---- will be used to stimulate the advancement of science. Fox said the aim is to learn how to manipulate embryonic stem cells to grow into tissues that could treat a range of diseases and perhaps even replace entire organs. Scientists are hoping that the cells could be used in the treatment of Parkinson's and heart damage. Already, three prominent La Jolla scientists have been named to the 29-member panel that will govern the agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, that administers the state research program. As chancellor of one of the five UC campuses with a medical school ---- the others are San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles and Irvine ---- Fox could choose one panel member. Her choice, Edward Holmes, vice chancellor of health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at UCSD, links up on the panel with John C. Reed, head of the Burnham Institute in La Jolla, and Richard Murphy, head of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, on the panel. State Controller Steve Westly appointed Reed, and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante named Murphy. The panel, called the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, is to be made up not only of people from the universities but also from medical research institutes, companies and research advocacy groups. Proposition 71, written in part by UCSD stem-cell researcher Larry Goldstein, requires the panel to decide in public who will get grant money and for what purpose. Fox said the committee will be charged with insuring that the money is used in an ethical and responsible way. Fox said that though the stem-cell measure presents a whole new set of opportunities in a brand new structure, the university could draw on its proven adeptness in already garnering and managing large research grants. With $627 million in annual research funding, UCSD is ranked fifth in the nation by the National Science Foundation in federal research and development spending. She said at least 27 companies and 270,000 jobs have been created in the private sector as a result of UCSD research. She said good estimates are hard to come by of how much spinoff activity the stem-cell research could generate. She also said the practical application of the research in medical treatment may be 20 years away. As for jobs, she said, "It's hard to count the jobs." SOURCE: North County Times, CA WWWeb: http://tinyurl.com/45z8j * * *Murray Charters <[log in to unmask]> Please place this address in your address book Please purge all others Web site: Parkinsons Resources on the WWWeb http://www.geocities.com/murraycharters ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn