Alan Trounson, California's Dr. Stem Cell -- latimes.com Page 1 of 4 latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0529-morrison-trounson-20130529,0,7837846.column latimes.com Patt Morrison Asks Alan Trounson, California's Dr. Stem Cell As president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Australian is helping guide the state to a high-tech medical future. Patt Morrison May 29, 2013 In 2004, with President George W. Bush dead set against stem cell research, California just went ahead 1> and did it. Voters made stem cell research a state constitutional right, and endorsed $3 billion in bond sales for 10 years to cement the deal. CIRM, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine created under Proposition 71, has become a world center for stem cell research, and its president is Australian Alan Trounson, a pioneer in in vitro fertilization. As Proposition 71 approaches its 10-year anniversary, Trounson offers a prognosis. It's been almost 10 years since California funded what may be the world's biggest stem cell research program. What are you up to? advertisement FREE CHECKED BAG GROUP 1 BOARDING DOUBLE MILES OPPORTUNITY ctri. I AmericankrOnAlevartageres L I_______ We are working hard to get six or seven projects to clinical trials. We have more than 70 [total] programs moving [toward] clinical trials. It's a lot of work to chaperon. I'll give you three examples: one, linking genetics, or genomics work, to stem cells, integrating the two. We're going to create a center in California that will bring a lot of [genetics] studies and clinical work to a new level. Secondly, we've set up a structure for banking the 3,000 cell lines from "induced pluripotent stem cells" that we turn into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells. We call them IPS cells. You take a skin cell or blood cell and convert it to the equivalent of an embryonic stem cell. We've also taken samples from patients with complex diseases, and we're ba