Four San Diego research centers said Friday they were joining forces to create a new, nonprofit institution to study stem cells. The new alliance – San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine – is made up of the University of California, San Diego; Burnham Institute; Salk Institute and Scripps Research Institute.
The collaboration is intended to bring together researchers from various disciplines to study stem cells, which some believe hold promise for treating such debilitating diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes. "I believe strongly that this consortium will, in time, lead to significant scientific advances and life-saving results," Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of UC San Diego, said in a statement.
A new building to house the researchers is expected to be built on the UC San Diego campus although no timetable for groundbreaking has been set, said university spokeswoman Leslie Franz. Discussion about forming the consortium began after California voters in 2004 approved a ballot measure that created a $3 billion human embryonic stem cell research institute.
The state agency was authorized to dole out $300 million in research grants over a decade, but research has been delayed by lawsuits concerning the initiative. Closing arguments in the case against the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine ended this week.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Lewman Sabraw will decide the verdict in the non-jury trial. Definitive details of the alliance have yet to be finalized among the four institutions. Those details include costs and the research funding process, which may involve raising funds from private sources to match funding provided by the voter-approved initiative.
"These are all things to be worked out and discussed," said Debra Kain, a spokeswoman for UCSD Health Sciences. The San Diego announcement came a month after philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad donated $25 million to build a stem cell research center on the University of Southern California campus.
