California stem cell institute gets (temp) president

Two months after retiring from La Jolla's Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Richard Murphy has agreed to become the interim president of California's stem cell institute. Murphy is replacing another interim president and gets a six month contract at $300,000. While Murphy says he plans to take on the task with vigor, he also doesn't plan to stay on permanently. The institute will soon begin handing out $3 billion in stem cell funding now that a lawsuit against the bond program has been put to rest. Oddly, though, the state has been finding it very difficult to land a prestigious figure to take on the job permanently.

"I think it's an exciting time for the (institute), with application requests ready to be issued for large facilities and applications for new investigators grants going out," Murphy told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "And now there's also discussion about a new (request for applications) for disease-oriented research groups, which I think is a great way of kick-starting disease-oriented research related to stem cells."

- read the report from the San Diego Union-Tribune

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