Stemcell Therapy Technology News

INVESTMENT BANKER DONATES $20 MILLION

By Barbara Feder Ostrov
Mercury News
San Francisco investment banker John Scully and his wife, Regina, have donated $20 million to Stanford's medical school and hospital to help expand stem-cell research at the university, Stanford officials said Wednesday.

The money will go toward a new medical school building with laboratories for stem-cell and regenerative-medicine research. The university hopes to break ground on that building late this year. The donation also will be used to create space for stem-cell treatment of patients within a planned expansion of Stanford University Medical Center that is expected to be completed in 2015.

Scully, 63, said he was motivated to support stem-cell research because of its potential for treating diseases like cancer and because funding for such research has been severely limited by federal restrictions since 2001.

"I don't believe government should restrict scientific inquiry," said Scully, who graduated from Stanford's Graduate School of Business in 1968 and is managing director of SPO Partners & Co. in Mill Valley. "But . . . I'm highly confident those federal restrictions will go away. Perhaps gifts like mine will hasten that day by showing the potential for stem-cell therapies."

Stanford has been positioning
itself as a major player in stem-cell research. In March 2007, Business Wire founder Larry Lokey December donated $33 million to Stanford Medical School to promote stem-cell research. Then, last month, medical school researchers received nearly $11 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to help advance the careers of young scientists in the field.


Article:http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_7930193?nclick_check=1