A pioneering Australian biologist who was among the first scientists to grow human embryonic stem cells in a laboratory will lead California's $3-billion effort to translate such research into cures for diseases.
The unexpected announcement that Alan Trounson, 61, director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories in Melbourne and a founder of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, would be the new president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine came during a teleconferenced meeting of the institute's oversight board Friday.
Robert Klein II, board chairman and driving force behind Proposition 71, which authorized creation of the institute, praised Trounson for his deep roots in the field, his experience in taking discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic and his "global vision."
Trounson "believes this is the epicenter of stem cell research worldwide, and he wants to lead the effort," Klein said.
Trounson will be paid $490,000, or if the state approves paying his moving expenses, $475,000, Klein said. Under the terms of his contract, he can work part time at a prorated salary for up to six months as he closes down his laboratory.
Trounson wants to start his new job as soon as he works out visa requirements, he said.
"This is a life-marker for my career," he said Friday by video hookup from Melbourne. "I just want to get on with the job."
Trounson's appointment comes just as the almost 3-year-old institute is set to shift into warp speed with an infusion of money and talent. Until now, it was running on borrowed money and a skeletal staff.
The state treasurer's office has set a Sept. 27 date for the sale of $250 million in general obligation bonds, the first installment of the billions of dollars for research approved by voters in 2004. The sale had been blocked by a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 71, officially known as the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, but in May, the California Supreme Court gave a final clearance to the research effort, declining to hear an appeal of two lower court rulings. That action cleared the way for the first bond sale.
Klein, chairman of the institute's oversight committee, wrote Proposition 71 in response to President Bush's August 2001 mandate that restricted federal funding to only a handful of human embryonic stem cell lines created before then, which happen to include those grown by Trounson's team. The restrictions were prompted by moral concerns about destruction of embryos during such research.
