Brain Drain?

Brain Drain?

Two scientists from the National Cancer Institute have decided to go to Singapore rather to Stanford University because of delays in research funding in California. The scientists, a married couple who discovered a way to speed up identification of cancer-causing genes in mice, are joining Singapore’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology rather than Stanford’s Institute for Cancer and Stem Cell Biology and Medicine. The AP story, printed in the San Jose Mercury News and in shorter form on the website of the local CBS affiliate in the Bay Area, says that the couple are concerned about “delays in the allocation of $3 billion in taxpayer funds set aside for stem cell research by Proposition 71.”

There was a hearing last Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court on one of the lawsuits that are delaying the funding for Prop 71, but the judge issued no ruling and gave no indication of what the ruling would be. The hearing and issues were reported in the San Francisco Examiner on Sunday and in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 18. The lawsuit alleges taxpayer money is not being controlled entirely by the state and therefore the Citizen’s Oversight Committee of Prop 71 is in violation of state law. A related lawsuit alleges conflict of interest in members of the Citizen’s Oversight Committee. (Details of the first lawsuit can be found on the Alameda County Superior Court website, under case number HG05206766.)