CGS-authored
The president of California's landmark stem cell agency resigned Thursday, citing personal reasons, in a move observers described as a major loss.
Zach Hall, 69, announced his departure at the monthly meeting of the agency's oversight committee, held at UC Irvine. The announcement was made amid the unanimous approval of the agency's 10-year scientific strategic plan.
Hall's departure will occur within the next six months.
Hall, a neuroscientist, joined the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in March 2005 as its first interim president. Although he declined to commit to a five- or six-year term, he agreed to take the job on a permanent, if not long-term, basis.
Hall is widely credited for providing a much-needed framework for grant making for the agency, as well as offering a sober scientific perspective amid stratospheric public expectations of cures from stem cells.
Early in his tenure at the agency, Hall said any major scientific advances from stem cells would be at least 10 years off -- remarks that are now a central theme in the agency's 120-page 10-year strategic plan approved Thursday.
The...