UCR gets stem-cell funding

By: CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 4, 2007 9:08 PM PDT ∞

RIVERSIDE -- A series of state grants for stem-cell research could bring new life to UC Riverside and boost the area's nascent biotech industry, researchers said this week.

The university earned about $4 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the independent agency created by Proposition 71 to oversee $3 billion in bond funding, since the beginning of the year. A $2.8 million grant the agency awarded to the university, part of a $50 million package its directors approved for research institutions statewide, is expected to help create a new laboratory for six to 12 researchers.

Federal funds support about 60 percent of the university's biological research, according to university officials. Current rules limit the research that federal money can fund.

Stem cells compose embryos in the first week after conception, when they amount to tiny balls of several hundred cells. At that stage, one cell varies little from the one next to it, but all later develop into specific types of body tissue depending on the chemical signals they receive.

Many scientists believe research on stem cells can point the way toward cures for a wide range of diseases. Critics, however, say using the cells amounts to creating life in order to destroy it. A ban issued by President Bush in 2001 prevents federal funding for research on embryonic stem-cell lines created since then; last month, Bush vetoed a congressional attempt to overturn the ban.

Stem cells are also present in bodies of adults, although scientists generally argue that adult stem cells are generally less useful in research. Those scientists, biotech executives and other backers of Prop. 71 have argued that state funding for embryonic stem cell research could draw researchers from other states, and spawn a range of biotech companies that use stem-cell technology.

"Where you've got major research out of a major institution, that tends to spawn business opportunities," said Jeff Linton, who produced materials for stem-cell research as an executive with Serologicals Corp. in Temecula. "That model has been proven time and time again."

Two dozen researchers work with adult human stem cells and nonhuman stem cells at the university. Richard Luben, UCR's associate vice chancellor for research, said the university is using the promise of the new lab, expected to be in use by early 2009, to lure new researchers. The lab will be open to university faculty and outside researchers, a setup that Luben said should encourage the development of biotech businesses.

California voters approved Prop. 71 in 2004, using state money to circumvent the federal ban. Backers of the measure argued that it would make the state a magnet for researchers from elsewhere in the country. Several states with significant biological research have considered measures similar to California's, albeit on smaller scales.

-- Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.

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