Stem cell institute to be in San Francisco


Long the flagship city of biotech, in California if not the nation, San Francisco has another pennant to fly from her mast: The state headquarters of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), established by Prop 71 (the "stem cell initiative") will be build here. (San Francisco Examiner)

(Apologies for that tortured boat metaphor, by the way. I'm going to let it stand as a tribute to the really bad writing of which I'm capable before coffee.)

This is a big deal but not a huge deal: The presence of the CIRM mothership in SF doesn't make the universities (mainly UCSF) or corporations of the city any more (officially) likely to pull in a larger share of the $300 million per annum that CIRM will distribute.

Still, this is the very opposite of a "balancing" selection. It's a choice of a sort quite unlike, e.g., the historical decision by so many states to place their capitals in a city that isn't the main cultural and economic powerhouse.

San Francisco is already a destination for biotech and biomedical pilgrims from around the nation and the world, and acquiring the CIRM HQ will serve only to increase its gravity.

The gravity of, you know, the boat. Which is now, somehow, a planet.

Coffee.

Posted: Mon - May 9, 2005 at 08:00 AM   | Category:     |   |   | |


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