Hardball --- Has California Been Duped by Alan Trounson?

California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) former chair Bob Klein did not make any financial gain from Prop71 for himself during his term, so no matter what the history will tell, we have to believe that his true motivation for Prop71 was for stem cell research, and thank him for trying to do a good job in a real world where the money is the biggest temptation. However, CIRM president Alan Trounson has a different story. Alan Trounson has made a big financial gain from Prop71 for himself, so his motivation has been tempted by the money and corrupted by those special interests of CIRM board members. Bob Klein publicly promoted human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research and campaigned government support and funding for it. Alan Trounson has scammed the government officials, most of them have as little scientific knowledge as the general public, and the public with non-viable adult/reprogrammed/genetic-engineered cells of CIRM board members, and has ensured hundreds of millions of Prop71 funds go to greedy unlawful special interests of universities/institutes and waste public funds for stem cell research on activities and a large number of awards/contracts not related to stem cell research. Alan Trounson requested outrageous salary from CIRM for himself, which has not only drawn public outcry, but has also tainted Prop71. Despite his sky-high financial interest in CIRM for himself, the public has given Alan Trounson the benefit of the doubt due to his fame, and has put high hope and trust on him that he would lead the way to fulfill the mission of Prop71. Alan Trounson’ half million a year salary may top the roof among government officials, but is nothing compared to $3 billions of Prop71. The money would be well-spent for the State if he has done a fair job to ensure the funding go to vital opportunities of hESC research and therapy development to generate cures & treatments for major unmet medical needs as the law states. Alan Trounson has been so trusted by CIRM that he is the only person in CIRM to be given the power to bypass the course of CIRM grants, so called extraordinary exceptions in order to preserve an important research opportunity to CIRM’s mission. However, the public records show that Alan Trounson has put CIRM board members’ financial conflicts of interest above the law, and has only used his power to preserve unlawful financial interests of CIRM board members, and even worse, to deprive CA’s important hESC research opportunity of lawful funding from Prop71. Before each round of CIRM awards, Alan Trounson had numerous pre-award meetings with those special interest individuals & groups of universities/institutes of CIRM board on iPS/reprogramming adult cells/cancer cells/genetic-engineering/drug-development/tissue-derived or endogenous non-pluripotent cells before those awardees shockingly surfaced to take funding from CIRM against the law; while set up exclusionary eligibility criteria and non-transparent pre-application procedures to block hESC research opportunity from consideration of lawful funding from Prop71. Alan Trounson even denied those existing hESC proposals from lawful consideration of CIRM funding that would preserve an important stem cell research and therapy opportunity of Prop71. Instead, Alan Trounson has given CA state bond to his out-of-state friend Anthony Atala, so he can be on the editorial board. Alan Trounson has misused CA state bond for stem cell research to stage those out-of-state stem cell impostors for stem cell research leadership awards, including $ 6M to Robert Wechsler-Reya of Sanford-Burnham, $ 6M to Zhigang He of UC Berkeley, and $6 M to a fruit-fly individual of Buck, with CIRM board members, including Kristina Vuori of Sanford-Burnham and Duane Roth of UC connect (also on Sanford-Burnham board), while refused to bring lawful hESC cell therapy development projects urgent to CIRM’s mission and millions of patients to CIRM ICOC board for consideration. So far, all Alan Trounson has done is to misuse his power given by the public to help the financial conflicts of interest of those CIRM board members to deprive hESC research of lawful funding from Prop71 and millions of patients the opportunity of treatment and cure from stem cell research, and turned CA historic Prop71 and the hope for stem cell research into a public show of embarrassment, misconduct, and corruption of CA top-paid state officials. Alan Trounson has betrayed the public’s trust to give California nothing! Has California been duped by Alan Trounson? California citizen, do we have to pay half million a year for a fake? Do we have to pay top money for corruption?