Conflicts trip up state stem cell program;

Burnham’s Reed to be investigated by state commission

The North County Times (San Diego, CA)

LOS ANGELES, CA — Leaders of California’s $3 billion stem cell program struggled with a rash of alleged conflict of interest problems Wednesday, even as they awarded $54.4 million in grants to 22 young scientists.

The allegations involve complaints about improper lobbying by members of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which governs the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

In lengthy discussions, some committee members said, reluctantly said that they will not recommend 10 applications for approval, while others said they are worried the process would discourage researchers.

“I want to be fair to 10 people who had nothing to do with this,” said member Sherry Lansing. She was not able to vote due to her position as a UC regent.

Also, the committee determined that five members might have inadvertently broken rules against lobbying for grants to institutions they help govern, which in turn, led to the rejection of the 10 proposals.

In a related matter, the California Fair Political Practices Commission announced Tuesday it would investigate member John Reed for allegedly improperly lobbying on a grant for the Burnham Institute in La Jolla. Reed is president and chief executive of the Burnham Institute.

The commission said its investigation of Reed was prompted by a complaint from the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights — a watchdog group.

Reed did not attend Wednesday’s meeting, held at UCLA. He announced Tuesday he would not participate in committee activities during the investigation.

The Burnham Institute is one of four members of a consortium of San Diego academic centers bidding for stem cell research money. The other centers are UC San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute and the Salk Institute.

Among the approved grants, Sheng Ding of The Scripps Research Institute was awarded $2.9 million on how to “reprogram,” or revert cells back to embryonic stem cells, the “ancestral” cells that differentiate the body. Leanne Jones of the Salk Institute received $2.6 million to study the mechanisms by which stem cells differentiate and how specialized cells can “de-differentiate” back into stem cells.

Proposals from researchers at UC San Francisco, UCLA, University of Southern California, UCSD and the Burnham Institute were rejected.

“These were innocent, inadvertent mistakes,” said Richard Murphy, interim president of the program. Committee members encouraged the researchers to reapply.

John Simpson, a spokesman for the taxpayer and consumer group, said it was possible that some committee members made an honest mistake due to the complicated provisions of the stem cell program. But he said the charge against Reed was much more serious.

Some committee members and officials blamed media scrutiny and critics for the stem cell program’s problems.

“I’m reminded of the words of composer Jean Sibelius, who once said, ‘Remember, a statute has never been set up to honor a critic,’ ” said Richard Murphy, interim president of the program.