WANTED: Czar for California Stem Cell Research Agency ... Must Be Rested & Ready to Be Most Powerful Person in Biotech

LA Times reports:

With less than a week before the debut of California's new $3 billion stem cell institute, intense behind-the-scenes debate is growing over who should head the agency and whether a Friday deadline for filling the post will allow the best candidates to be considered. The debate is expected to crest Monday when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and three other state elected officials must, under the tight deadlines set by the state's embryonic stem cell initiative, put forward their nominee to chair the new agency.

The chairperson will immediately become among the most influential officials in the field of biological research, running much of the day-to-day operations of an institute that will dole out some $300 million a year in grants, more than 10 times what the federal government now spends yearly in the stem cell field.

Bernard Lo is quoted.