Stem Cell Post Likely to Go to Klein

Bob Klein, a Palo Alto real estate developer who has no scientific background but who ran the multimillion-dollar Proposition 71 campaign, appeared Monday to have a near-lock on the powerful job of running the state’s $3-billion stem cell institute.

With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and Controller Steve Westly each nominating Klein to head the voter-approved California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, he went from front-runner to almost certain choice when the board of directors meets for the first time Friday.

A fourth and final nomination is expected. Treasurer Phil Angelides, who must also name a candidate for chairperson, is expected to announce his choice today, a day after the deadline written into the legislation. Angelides was a key early supporter of the ballot measure.

Whoever is chosen will immediately take on one of the highest-profile positions in the controversial field of embryonic stem cell research. A 27-member board of directors -- with some still to be named -- is scheduled to elect the chairperson and vice chairperson Friday in San Francisco at the launch of the new state agency. The agency will distribute $300 million a year for the next decade.

Though Schwarzenegger and others praised Klein for bringing the stem cell project to fruition, some scientists and medical ethicists questioned whether someone with no technical training is the right choice to run a program of such scale and importance.

Moreover, others said they were troubled that there may be only one nominee to lead the effort.

Jeff Sheehy, who is representing the AIDS/HIV community on the board, said he had hoped to have a number of candidates who could present different visions of how the agency should move forward. He said that with debate now unlikely, “the whole thing is starting to feel railroaded.”

“I think there should be more than one choice,” said Sheehy, Sen. John Burton’s sole appointment to the board and deputy director for communications for UC San Francisco’s AIDS Research Institute. “I think that that’s terrible public process,” he said. “They’ve done a great thing in getting this this far but they can ruin the whole thing by not being open now.”

Marcy Darnovsky, who supports such research but opposed the initiative because of oversight concerns, said the heavy bias toward Klein was troubling.

“We’re setting up an echo chamber here where we’re only going to hear from people who agree with each other,” said Darnovsky, associate executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland.

Aides to Schwarzenegger declined Monday to talk about whether the governor vetted other candidates for the chairmanship, saying the process was private.

Bustamante’s spokesman, Stephen Green, said the lieutenant governor considered a number of people, some of whom asked not to be nominated, citing time constraints and public disclosure requirements.

In any case, Green said Bustamante had a long-standing relationship with Klein and believed “he had earned the right to be the chair.”

Klein, 59, a Stanford Law School graduate, became an advocate for the research after his now-14-year-old son was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes three years ago. He has described California’s investment as a “substitute national program” to take the place of funding for basic scientific research into embryonic stem cells that the Bush administration has strictly limited.

Amy Comstock, executive director of the Parkinson’s Action Network, praised Klein, saying that “throughout his career, and most recently as chairman of the Proposition 71 campaign, Mr. Klein has demonstrated an understanding of the politics of science.”

“I could not imagine a more qualified individual to become chairman of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee,” Comstock said in a statement.

Klein has said he wants to have the first grants to researchers by May, setting up an aggressive timeframe for determining the ethical and scientific guidelines for the new institute.

His resume matches the requirements for the institute’s chair that he wrote into the legislation, including a background as a patient advocate in California and a knowledge of bonds, which will be sold to pay for the research at a cost to taxpayers of about $6 billion over the 30-year course of the loan.

Bustamante nominated Dr. Frank E. Staggers Sr. to be vice chairman. Staggers is a former president of both the California Medical Assn. and the National Medical Assn.

In addition to agreeing on Klein, both Schwarzenegger and Westly nominated Dr. Edward Penhoet, a co-founder of biotech giant Chiron Corp. and current president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, to be second in command.

“I would hope that the 27 appointed members would vote to endorse my and Ed Penhoet’s candidacies,” Klein said in a statement Monday. “Ed and I believe that the chair/vice chair team that we would form, if elected, would bring a great combination of experience, education and commitment to the institute in the fields of patient advocacy, law, finance, business management, therapy development, public medicine, government relations and medical science.”

Schwarzenegger, who came out in favor of Proposition 71 late in the campaign, cited Klein’s “passion for pursuing and furthering stem cell research” and Penhoet’s “tremendous experience and wisdom as a researcher and scientist” as a powerful combination that would serve the state well.

But others raised questions about whether Klein’s success as a campaigner would translate well into the leadership of an institute that will be closely scrutinized.

“I think that from the way that the campaign was conducted ... the people who were funding the ballot initiative often didn’t have scruples in how ... they were portraying the promise of the technology,” said Stuart Newman, a professor of cell biology and anatomy at the New York Medical College and a fellow at the Chicago-based Institute of Biotechnology and the Human Future. “You want the public to be able to trust what is being said. Scientists know that what science consists of is not only promise but limitations.”

Embryonic stem cells are created in the early days of development, and can become cells of any type. Many scientists believe they have great promise for treating diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease and insulin-dependent diabetes.

But research using embryonic stem cells requires destruction of embryos, and remains politically and ethically controversial.

In addition to broad responsibilities for managing the institute, the chairperson will sit on the working groups responsible for scientific and medical accountability, research facilities and funding. An institute president also will be hired, someone Klein has said he envisions will be found through a national search and who will serve as the day-to-day chief scientist and chief executive.

Some people who have followed the push for California to invest heavily in embryonic stem cell research -- the largest state effort in basic scientific research to date -- said they had hoped to see a trained scientist take the helm. One model cited was the National Institutes of Health, where appointees are often leaders in the scientific fields they oversee.

If the chairperson is not a scientist, it will be important to have a strong scientific advisor to handle that portion of the workload, said Theodore Friedmann, director of UC San Diego’s gene therapy program.

“The whole thing will really will hinge on the quality of the science that this institute can generate,” said Friedmann, who served on the state’s cloning commission. “That means getting the very best people to push and drive and evaluate the science. But I think it can benefit from an industry point of view -- a sense of get-it-doneness -- too.”

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Appointees to stem cell oversight panel

Here are the appointees so far to the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which will govern the state’s $3-billion embryonic stem cell research effort. The 27 appointees will elect a chairman and vice chairman, filling the final two positions Friday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger:

* Keith L. Black, director of the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and director of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

* Brian E. Henderson, dean of USC’s Keck School of Medicine

* Oswald Steward, chairman and director of the Christopher Reeve-Irvine Research Center for Spinal Cord Injury at UC Irvine

* Leon J. Thal, chairman of the Department of Neurosciences at UC San Diego and director of its Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

* Gayle Wilson, the wife of former Gov. Pete Wilson, sits on corporate boards including Gilead Sciences Inc., a biopharmaceutical company

Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante:

* Josephine Phyllis Preciado, executive director of the Diabetes Resource Network, Fresno Collaborative, UC San Francisco; and executive director of the Latino Center for Medical Education and Research, Fresno

* Tina S. Nova, president and chief executive of Genoptix Inc. in San Diego

* Richard Murphy, chief executive officer of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies

* Robert J. Birgeneau, chancellor of UC Berkeley

* David Serrano-Sewell, deputy city attorney for San Francisco

Treasurer Phil Angelides:

Five still to be named.

Controller Steve Westly:

* Ted W. Love, president, chief executive and director of Nuvelo Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in Sunnyvale

* Joan Samuelson, founder and president of the nonprofit Parkinson’s Action Network

* Philip Pizzo, dean of Stanford Medical School

* John C. Reed, chief executive of the Burnham Institute

* Sherry Lansing, chairwoman and chief executive of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez:

* John Hein, executive director of the national advocacy organization Communities for Quality Education

Former Senate President Pro Tem John Burton:

* Jeff Sheehy, deputy director for communications at UC San Francisco, AIDS Research Institute

Appointees of the chancellors of UC campuses with medical schools:

* Susan V. Bryant, dean of the UC Irvine School of Biological Sciences and professor of development/cell biology

* Edward W. Holmes, dean of the UC San Diego School of Medicine and vice chancellor of UC San Diego Health Services

* David Kessler, dean of the UC San Francisco School of Medicine and former head of the Food and Drug Administration

* Gerald S. Levey, vice chancellor of UCLA Medical Sciences and dean of the medical school

* Claire Pomeroy, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine and vice chancellor of UC Davis Human Health Services

Sources: Associated Press and Times staff writer Megan Garvey

Los Angeles Times