Mark Berndt / University of Southern California
Martin Pera of the University of Southern California (USC) has announced March 7 that it will return to Australia in June to direct stem cells Australia (SCA), a new national stem cell consortium. SCA will replace the troubled Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC), where Pera served as research director before coming to USC in 06. In 5 years as first director Eli and Edythe Broad Center of USC medicine regenerative and stem cells, Pera built a stem cell program covering basic research to clinical trials.
SCA will be administered by the University of Melbourne and funded at $ 20.7 million over 7 years by the Australian Research Council and $ 42.3 million from the partner organizations. The consortium members include Monash University, the University of Queensland, University of New South Wales, Chang Cardiac Research Institute Victor, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Florey Neuroscience Institutes, and CSIRO.
Q: Why did you leave ASCC in 06
MP: I'm frustrated, like many scientists, what we saw as insufficient emphasis on science. We did not realize the synergies that a national center should. The inherent problem is that the ASCC is a hybrid of a biotechnology and academic organization and it was difficult to get the balance right. In recent years, this has been corrected.
Q: Why have you decided to return to Australia
MP: When the opportunity arose to help lead a new consortium Australian research on stem cells, it was a very attractive offer. On the other hand, we had taken a step at USC. We had built a stem cell program from scratch from basic research and construction of the translation side. We Doheny Eye Institute in sustained CIRM program, Professor Mark Humayun and David Hinton plan to stem clinical trials for macular degeneration, and my colleague Michael Kahn has just initiated a Phase I clinical trial of a drug for the colorectal carcinoma that was developed by means of a stem cell-based screen.
Q: You have always loved the bench. Why did you move into management
mp.:. This was an opportunity to build something more; something that will survive my own career. I always kept my own lab will focus on understanding what pluripotent stem cells really are, and extrinsic signals that govern their self-renewal and differentiation. Back in Australia, the scientific direction of the SCA will be shared and I wish to spend most of my time in the lab.
Q: When ASCC was founded in 02, Australia had a leader in research on stem cells. Not now. How the country in competition?
mp.:. Australia still has great strengths, many of them a legacy of ASCC. I do not know too many other consortia that can integrate expertise in embryonic and tissue stem cell biology, tissue regeneration and repair, bioengineering, nanotechnology, materials science, genomics and bioinformatics. The purpose of this grant is to bring these groups together and establish a powerful framework for interdisciplinary research.
0 Komentar