LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Robert N. Klein, chairman of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), delivered the keynote address at the 2005 Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Symposium on Cell and Tissue Engineering on Sunday, September 18, in Los Angeles.
Mr. Klein, president of Klein Financial Corporation, was the author of the historic California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, which was Proposition 71 on the general election ballot in California on Nov. 2, 2004. The initiative, which was overwhelmingly passed by the California electorate, will provide $3 billion over 10 years to build infrastructure and provide grants for stem cell research.
Mr. Klein was honored as one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People of the Year" for 2005.
In his keynote address, Mr. Klein applauded the work of researchers. "The efforts that I and other patient advocates put into research are irrelevant without the scientists in this room, without institutes like the Saban Research Institute leading the nation and the world. We can merely supply the legal structure and the funding; you are the ones that are the heroes to all of the patient organizations in this country, and certainly to me personally."
His advocacy, he said, was borne of personal experience. "I'm the father of a 15-year-old with juvenile diabetes and the son of a mother who's dying of Alzheimer's," Mr. Klein said. He recalled bringing his son, Jordan, to Washington in 2002 to campaign for research funding. Sen. John F. Kerry asked Jordan about the consequences of uncontrolled diabetes, and the boy explained the terrible realities of the disease: blindness, kidney failure, amputation. "You can imagine for a father or a mother this kind of message is something you can't live with," Mr. Klein said. "You have to stand up and fight for something better."
He said that his son felt empowered through action. "Instead of having disease control his body," he said, "he could fight back by advocating, instead, for something that might change the future."
Mr. Klein credited the passage of Prop 71 to the invaluable role of people like Childrens Hospital Los Angeles endocrinologist and former American Diabetes Association President Francine R. Kaufman, M.D., "...a person of tremendous distinction and commitment..." He said that "...Childrens Hospital has been a critical ally."
Mr. Klein noted the tremendous progress scientists have made in eradicating disease, reminding those in attendance how the discovery of the Salk vaccine rewrote the prognosis for polio. It's these "...battles that were won with tremendous discipline and commitment that lead patient advocates to commit substantial portions of our lives to see that individuals like you with the knowledge to move science and medicine forward have every opportunity."
The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles was the only pediatric institution in California awarded a stand-alone CIRM training grant in the first distribution of funds made possible by the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative - a $2.4 million, three-year stem cell training grant - among 16 grants totaling $39.7 million approved last week by the CIRM's 29-member Independent Citizens' Oversight Committee.
The 2005 Saban Research Symposium on cell and tissue engineering featured international scientists working on diverse model systems with a goal of uncovering common themes in cell and tissue engineering, according to symposium director Ivan Vesely, Ph.D., director of the Cardiovascular Research Program at The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, H. Russell Smith Foundation Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Research and professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.
"This is an exciting time at The Saban Research Institute," Dr. Vesely said. "Clearly, we have established one of the most outstanding stem cell research programs on the west coast, and certainly one the most innovative tissue engineering programs in cardiovascular surgery and urology.
"Now, with passage of Proposition 71, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has awarded its first grants to train pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and clinical fellows at 16 universities and other institutions throughout the state. We, at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, are proud to be the only pediatric hospital to receive such an award.
"We have established the Saban Symposia Series to bring truly world-class scientists to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles on a regular basis to present and share their experiences, focusing especially on the translation of basic science into therapies for childhood diseases."
The 2005 Saban Research Institute Symposium on Cell and Tissue Engineering brought together scientists who are working on diverse model systems, with a goal of uncovering common themes in cell and tissue engineering. The complete list of presenters:
-- Sir Magdi Yacoub, FRS, FRCS, FRCP, DS, Heart Science Centre,
Harefield, United Kingdom
-- Professor Martin Pera, Monash University and the Australian
Stem Cell Centre, Australia
-- Peter Lansdorp, MD, PhD, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC, Canada
-- Margaret Goodell, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,
Texas
-- Eli Keshet, PhD, Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical School,
Jerusalem, Israel
-- Vincent Fleury, PhD, California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, California
-- Erika Matunis, PhD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Baltimore, Maryland
-- Anthony Atala, MD, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North
Carolina
-- Gail Naughton, PhD, San Diego State University, San Diego,
California
-- Peter Zilla, MD, PhD, University of Cape Town, South Africa
-- James B. Bassingthwaighte, MD, PhD, University of Washington,
Seattle
-- David Williams, DSc, FREng, UK Centre for Tissue Engineering,
Liverpool, United Kingdom
The Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Stem Cell Project is one of the premier collections of physician-scientists and researchers in the country, developing and applying the clinical potential of stem cells to treat human diseases. It includes more than 30 research groups, contributing a wide range of complementary expertise in human embryonic and adult stem cells, gene therapy, developmental biology, tissue engineering and clinical transplantation. These investigators are working to increase the understanding of stem cell biology and apply that knowledge to the treatment of such conditions as diabetes, cancer and leukemia, thalassemia and sickle cell disease, immune deficiency disorders, cystic fibrosis, and congenital lung and heart disease.
"It is our central hypothesis that childhood disorders will be especially responsive to therapies produced by the use of stem cells," said Gay M. Crooks, M.D., who is the director of The Childrens Hospital Los Angeles Stem Cell Project. "Advances in the use of stem cells to treat childhood illnesses will then lead the way to treatments for the many disorders that occur later in life."
Dr. Crooks, a member of the Gene, Immune and Stem Cell Therapy Program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine, has been studying human stem cells in bone marrow and umbilical cord blood for 14 years.
Founded in 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles has been treating the most seriously ill and injured children in Los Angeles for more than a century, and it is acknowledged throughout the United States and around the world for its leadership in pediatric and adolescent health. Childrens Hospital is one of America's premier teaching hospitals, affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California for more than 73 years. It is a national leader in pediatric research.
Today, physician-scientists at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles address the most vexing pediatric medical problems and discover important new therapies for children everywhere, including advances in cancer care, gene transfer, stem cell and organ transplantation and diabetes. The Saban Research Institute is among the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States, with 91 investigators at work on 239 laboratory studies, clinical trials and community-based research and health services. It is one of the few free-standing research centers in the nation to combine scientific laboratory inquiry with patient clinical care - dedicated exclusively to children ( and its base of knowledge is widely considered to be among the best in pediatric medicine.
Programs and Initiatives at The Saban Research Institute include the Body and Bone Composition Initiative, the Cancer Program, the Cardiovascular Research Program, the Community Outcomes and Intervention Research Program, the Developmental Biology Program, the Gene, Immune and Stem Cell Therapy Program, the Imaging Research Initiative and the Microbial Pathogens Initiative. Clinical research is conducted under the auspices of the Childrens Brain Center, the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, the Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases, the General Clinical Research Center, The Heart Institute and the Childrens Orthopaedic Center.
Visit our website: www.ChildrensHospitalLA.org