CGS-authored
29-member board sworn in; biotech exec is vice chair
Robert N. Klein, a millionaire developer with no scientific credentials but a potent vision for the future of medicine, took the helm of California's $3 billion stem-cell venture Friday, officially launching one of the biggest science experiments in history.
As the driving force behind Proposition 71 in the Nov. 2 statewide election -- and a campaign donor to several state officials as well as helping fund the initiative drive -- Klein was always the clear favorite to direct the new California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
State voters created the institute mainly to pursue stem-cell research involving early-stage human embryos -- experiments considered to be immoral by religious conservatives and that are largely ineligible for federal grants under rules adopted by the Bush administration.
Klein, 59, who lives in Portola Valley, is a lawyer who heads the Klein Financial Corp., a housing-finance concern in Palo Alto.
He was sworn in as California's first stem-cell czar at the debut meeting of a 29-member board created by Prop. 71 to direct the new institute's...
Robert N. Klein, a millionaire developer with no scientific credentials but a potent vision for the future of medicine, took the helm of California's $3 billion stem-cell venture Friday, officially launching one of the biggest science experiments in history.
As the driving force behind Proposition 71 in the Nov. 2 statewide election -- and a campaign donor to several state officials as well as helping fund the initiative drive -- Klein was always the clear favorite to direct the new California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
State voters created the institute mainly to pursue stem-cell research involving early-stage human embryos -- experiments considered to be immoral by religious conservatives and that are largely ineligible for federal grants under rules adopted by the Bush administration.
Klein, 59, who lives in Portola Valley, is a lawyer who heads the Klein Financial Corp., a housing-finance concern in Palo Alto.
He was sworn in as California's first stem-cell czar at the debut meeting of a 29-member board created by Prop. 71 to direct the new institute's...