Alan Trounson named California's new stem cell chief

Alan Trounson named California's new stem cell chief Saturday, 15 September 2007 The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), based in San Francisco, has been searching for a science chief since its first president, Zach Hall, retired at the end of April. On Friday, the California's stem cell agency named the Australian stem cell scientist Alan Trounson as its new president. Twenty members of the 29-person committee that oversees the agency were in attendance at Friday's monthly meeting in Los Angeles. All 20 voted for Trounson's appointment, instantly propelling him to the forefront of stem cell research. Trounson, 61, said he is ready to start a new scientific chapter to a career spent in the laboratory. "It's just a wonderful conclusion to a career in science," said Trounson. "These things don't happen often to us colonials down under." Trounson earned undergraduate degrees from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and his doctorate in embryology from Sydney University in 1974. He is currently director of Monash University's stem cell program in Melbourne. Trounson founded the Australia's Stem Cell Center in 2003, and is well known globally for his work in stem cell and human fertilization. He has also launched eight biotechnology companies, including Singapore-based Embryonic Stem Cell International. Trounson said he is no longer an investor in that company, or any other, working with human embryonic stem cells. Trounson will oversee a staff of about 30 and help the agency meet its goals laid out in a 150-page plan Hall helped draft before he departed. The most ambitious goal of the plan is to move the research out of the laboratory and into tests on people within 10 years. ......... ZenMaster

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