Letter to NIH Director Francis Collins

Dr. Francis Collins
Director, National Institutes of Health

1 Center Drive, MSC 0148 (Room 126)
Bethesda, MD 20892-0148
Fax: 301-402-2700
Email: francis.collins@nih.gov

Subject: Urge NIH to increase funding and support for human embryonic stem cell research and new stem cell research investigator

Dear NIH Director,

Thank you for your recent visit to San Diego research & biotech community to promote increasing funding for NIH and finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Human embryonic stem cell (hESC) cell therapy derivatives hold tremendous potential for tissue and organ regeneration and function restoration. Clinical applications of hESC therapy derivatives provide the right alternative for many incurable diseases & major health problems that the conventional mode of drugs & treatments cannot, such as heart disease and failure, Parkinson’s diseases, ALS, Alzheimer disease, stroke, brain & spinal cord injuries. Each single one of those world-wide major health problems cost the health care system more than $10 billion annually. In particular, hESC neuronal & cardiomyocyte therapy derivatives are currently the only available human cell sources with adequate capacity to regenerate neurons & contractile heart muscles, vital for CNS and heart repair in the clinical setting. The loss of NIH funds to hESC research threatens the future of existing hESC projects and the ability for new investigators to get funding to continue hESC research and career or begin new studies, which are crucial to improving the human health and fighting human diseases, particularly those major health problems of US, such as PD and heart disease.

Recent advances and breakthroughs in San Diego Regenerative Medicine Institute (SDRMI) hESC research have overcome some major obstacles in bringing hESC therapy derivatives towards clinical applications. SDRMI & Xcelthera have established human stem cell technology platforms for defined culture systems for derivation and maintenance of clinical-grade pluripotent hESCs (PluriXcel-DCS) and lineage-specific differentiation of pluripotent hESCs by small molecule induction for direct conversion of pluripotent hESCs into neuronal cells or heart muscle cells for developing safe and effective stem cell therapies (PluriXcel-SMI). Such milestone advances and medical innovations in SDRMI & Xcelthera hESC research enable generation of a large supply of high purity clinical-grade hESC neuronal (Xcel-hNuP & Xcel-hNu) & heart (Xcel-hCardP & Xcel-hCM) cell therapy products for treating neurological & heart diseases & injuries. Please go to our websites at http://www.sdrmi.org & http://www.xcelthera.com to see SDRMI & Xcelthera stem cell research breakthrough publications, human stem cell therapy products and technology platforms, and watch videos of hESC heart beats (hESC-derived heart muscle cells) & slideshow of evolution of CNS neuron cells from hESCs by SDRMI & Xcelthera exclusive human stem cell technique PluriXcel-SMI.

Increasing current NIH funding for hESC research is vital to driving the advance of medicine to provide treatment options for many major world-wide incurable diseases, such as Alzheimer disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, heart disease. Given the limited capacity of the CNS & heart for self-repair, transplantation of hESC neuronal & heart cell therapy derivatives holds enormous potential in cell replacement therapy, representing most promising therapeutic approaches closest to provide a cure. Increasing funding for hESC research would be crucial to relieving health care burden, therefore, budget deficit in the future. However, although President Obama acted very quickly to relax the NIH policy on hESC research in March 2009, so far NIH under your directing have cut funding for hESC research to a level worse than that under pervious Bush administration by a Republican President or previous NIH director. During Obama administration led by a Democrat President, crucial hESC research and advances cannot proceed, and existing national hESC research labs and resources that had been open for research progress even in Bush administration have been shut down due to lack of funding. On the other hand, NIH under your directing have wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer money on adult stem cell frauds and scams and fake science, such as on making very dangerous malicious cancer cells from skin by calling it as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells, no scientific evidence for self-renewal by the definition of stem cells) to endanger public health. In last few years, NIH under your directing have wasted > $300 millions on iPS cells (putting oncogenes into the skin cells of lab rats by falsely claiming it as adult cell alternate for hESCs), examples include Deepak Srivastava of USF (NIH U01HL100406) ~ $ 7 million, George Daley of Harvard U. (NIH U01HL100001) ~ $ 7 million, Robert Robbins of Stanford U (NIH U01HL099776) ~ $ 7 million, Charles Murry of U. Washington (NIH P01HL094374) ~ $ 10 million, Alysson Muotri of UCSD (NIH 1DP2OD006495) ~ $5 million, John O'Shea of National Institute of Arthritis And Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases (NIH 1ZICAR041190) ~ $ 14 million. While funding for hESC research has been reduced from ~ $80 millions in Bush administration to < 10 millions annually in Obama administration. Please see this website http://search.engrant.com for more information. As NIH new investigator, my critical hESC research projects relevant to understanding the human development and fighting human diseases & major US health problems, such as heart diseases and PD, have kept receiving NIH flawed reviews with apparent biases/COI and scores not reflecting the overall impact and scientific merit of hESC research grant applications. Therefore, we’d like to urge NIH to take action to have high level of transparency and high standard of review for NIH grants review processes in Center for Scientific Review, particularly for stem cell research projects, increase NIH funding for hESC research and new stem cell research investigator, and stop funding stem cell frauds & scams & fake science with taxpayer money.