{"id":1063426,"date":"2013-01-20T07:48:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-20T07:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/stem-cell-agency-chair-pressing-for-consensus-on-iom-recommendations\/"},"modified":"2024-08-17T20:29:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T00:29:27","slug":"stem-cell-agency-chair-pressing-for-consensus-on-iom-recommendations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/stem-cell-therapy\/stem-cell-agency-chair-pressing-for-consensus-on-iom-recommendations-2.php","title":{"rendered":"Stem Cell Agency Chair Pressing for Consensus on IOM Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The chairman of the $3 billion<br>California stem cell agency, <b>Jonathan Thomas<\/b>, yesterday outlined how<br>he intends to proceed next week when the agency's governing board<br>considers <a href=\"http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/2013\/01\/california-stem-cell-face-off-cirm.html\">the far-reaching recommendations<\/a> of a blue-ribbon <b>Institute<br>of Medicine<\/b> panel.<\/p><div><\/div><div><a href=\"http:\/\/cirmresearch.blogspot.com\/2013\/01\/cirm-governing-board-to-discuss-iom.html\">Writing on the agency's blog<\/a>, Thomas<br>said,<\/div><blockquote><p>&ldquo;While some of the IOM&rsquo;s<br>recommendations are administrative in nature and can be implemented,<br>others are much more complex and would require changes in (governing)<br>board policy or legislative changes.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\"><tbody><tr><td><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-zb4_l06UVxw\/UPq-qKzYTkI\/AAAAAAAACaQ\/tITT6L9koeA\/s1600\/Thomas,+Klein+Torres.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" height=\"145\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/ed7ae_Thomas,+Klein+Torres.JPG\" width=\"400\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jonathan Thomas, chairman of CIRM governing board at far right. Art <br>Torres&nbsp;(center),&nbsp;co-vice chair and former state Democratic party chairman, <br>who would&nbsp;&nbsp;play&nbsp;key role in dealing with lawmakers. Robert Klein is at the<br>&nbsp;left in this&nbsp;2011 meeting, Klein's last as chairman of the agency and the one<br>&nbsp;in which&nbsp;Thomas was elected chairman.&nbsp;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><div>He continued,<\/div><blockquote><p>&ldquo;My goal is to strive to reach<br>consensus on a course of action on the 23rd. However, if the board<br>isn&rsquo;t able to choose a course of action at this time we will<br>continue the conversation and bring it up at future board meetings<br>until we reach agreement.&rdquo;<\/p><\/blockquote><div>It is worth noting that Thomas did not<br>mention the possibility of having to ask the people of California to<br>amend the state constitution, which would require a statewide election. Opponents to change at the agency have<br>used that possibility to discourage action. (See <a href=\"http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/boxing-in-california-stem-cell-board.html\">here <\/a>and <a href=\"http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/2012\/12\/exploring-straw-man-argument-against.html\">here<\/a>.) An<br>election would be costly, politically difficult and could open the<br>door to additional unwelcome changes at the eight-year-old research<br>enterprise.<\/div><div><\/div><div>Thomas' desire for a consensus among<br>the 29 board members &ndash; instead of a simple majority &ndash; could be a<br>stumbling block as the board becomes snarled internally, perhaps for<br>months or more. The board normally meets only about once a month and<br>has a full slate of regular business on those occasions. The agency<br>will run out of money for new grants in less than four years, and<br>action on the IOM recommendations seems a necessary prelude to<br>winning continued financial support.<\/div><div><\/div><div>While four years would appear to an ample<br>period of time, making the sort of changes the IOM recommends would<br>require legislative action, which probably would take a minimum of a<br>year. Timing is important as well. The current leaders in the state<br>Senate and Assembly will be termed out in 2014. Starting all over<br>with novice leadership, changes in key committee chairmanships and so<br>forth would make the task even more difficult. Then there is the need<br>to address strategies for continued financial support. Should the<br>agency seek a new statewide bond measure (the current funding<br>mechanism)? If so campaign committees need to be formed, electoral<br>strategies planned and tested and tens of millions of dollars raised<br>for campaign expenses. If private funds instead are to be raised to<br>the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars(the agency spends about<br>$300 million a year), such an effort would also require considerable time.<br>To keep the funding pipeline full, all of this should be completed<br>well before the money runs out in 2017.<\/div><div><\/div><div>Dilly-dallying this year in drawn-out, fruitless debate over<br>the IOM proposals would be an unfortunate beginning should CIRM<br>directors actually want to continue the existence of the<br>organization.<\/div><div><\/div><div>In his blog item, Thomas sounded this<br>final note.<\/div><blockquote><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s likely the debate will be<br>passionate &ndash; everyone involved in this work cares deeply about it &ndash;<br>and there will undoubtedly be disagreements, but ultimately we all<br>share the same goal, a desire to make sure that whatever we decide<br>helps make the stem cell agency even stronger and more effective, and<br>is in the best interests of the people of California.&rdquo;<\/p><\/blockquote><div><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/ed7ae_xriRP02aekU\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\">Source:<br><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/blogspot\/uqpFc\/~3\/xriRP02aekU\/stem-cell-agency-chair-pressing-for.html\">http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/blogspot\/uqpFc\/~3\/xriRP02aekU\/stem-cell-agency-chair-pressing-for.html<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The chairman of the $3 billionCalifornia stem cell agency, Jonathan Thomas, yesterday outlined howhe intends to proceed next week when the agency's governing boardconsiders the far-reaching recommendations of a blue-ribbon Instituteof Medicine panel.Writing on the agency's blog, Thomassaid,&ldquo;While some of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/stem-cell-therapy\/stem-cell-agency-chair-pressing-for-consensus-on-iom-recommendations-2.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1246878],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1063426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stem-cell-therapy","category-stem-cells"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}