Now we're a global player: stem cell CEO

Australia's decision to back stem cell research with a $46.5 million grant would have international ramifications for local researchers, according to the head of the winning Centre of Excellence bid.

The new CEO of the Centre for Stem Cells and Tissue Repair, Prof Alan Trounson, said the support shown by government for what has been seen as a controversial area of research had also created ripples in the investment community.

"We have decided that Australia is going to be eminent in this area and that is good for us," said Trounson, who is currently director of the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development.

"This is a very big kick for Australia, Victoria and the kind of medical research I am involved in."

Consolidating embryonic and adult stem cell work from 10 research institutes and two companies, the Biotechnology Centre of Excellence will be housed in the new Monash Science, Technology, Research and Innovation Precinct, which is expected to be completed by next May.

Trounson said the funding would begin from the end of September, although it was still to be decided how the money would be divided.

He said the first step would be for him to resign from his "comfortable academic position" with Monash, then to form the centre with appropriate staff.

Trounson said that as well as the projects outlined in the Centre of Excellence bid, he was keen to begin research work into using retinal stem cells to treat blindness.

While no Australian groups were as yet working in the area, Trounson said he hoped the centre would begin research with a view to forming alliances with other eminent teams overseas.

"It is an immune privileged site and is one of the areas where we can get into clinical trials more quickly than others," he said.

Trounson said he was also keen to get work started in creating human stem cell lines that were clean in the regulatory sense -- stem cells, that is, that were not tainted by animal cells.

The elated scientist said it felt good to have the support of both the Prime Minister and the Victorian Premier.

"What they have done is endorse the decision of the [Centre of Excellence] committee, which was made up of non-political people," Trounson said.

"The government could have chosen to alter that decision but they didn't and I think that's tremendous."

He said he was not concerned that the draft regulations for the use of embryonic stem cells outlawed therapeutic cloning for at least three years, saying it would not hinder the immediate work of the centre.

Trounson said he was preparing to travel to the United States where he would speak about "our brave government" at Bio 2002 in Toronto and the Australian American Association in New York.

"I think the international community has been very surprised already and I think the venture capital industry is already very interested," he said. "I think they will see both the political braveness and determination and the fact that Australia is moving with the times out of conservative era."