Arlene Chiu, the interim chief scientific officer at the
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine , has announced that she will step down from her post at the end of October. In a CIRM statement Chiu writes that she'll be moving from San Francisco, where CIRM is headquartered to her home in Los Angeles to "pursue new professional directions."
Chiu will serve as a consultant to the agency through April 2008, advising newly chosen interim president
Richard Murphy , recruiting individuals to CIRM's scientific team and helping craft CIRM's 2008 scientific agenda.
Chiu's announcement comes amidst criticism from some that California's stem cell agency, which was tasked in 2004 with doling out $3 billion in state funds to support stem cell research, is dragging its feet in finding a permanent president since
Zach Hall , CIRM's last permanent president, announced his retirement last December and left the institute in April.
"I believe Dr. Chiu's departure underscores the importance of the oversight committee performing its single most important task: hiring a president and chief executive," writes John Simpson, with the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights--a watchdog group that keeps tabs on CIRM--in a statement. "Had the committee done so in a timely way, I believe Dr. Chiu would still be at CIRM."
Chiu joined CIRM in 2005 as the agency's director of scientific activities. She helped assemble CIRM's scientific team, which
awarded the first $200 million in California state funds to stem cell researchers. Before that, Chiu was the associate director of the Office of Research Administration for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH.
"Arlene has left her mark on the DNA of CIRM," writes Hall in another statement, "She will be hard to replace." Hall acted as both president and CSO during his tenure at CIRM, and Chiu took over as interim CSO when Hall left.
CIRM spokesperson Dale Carlson says that who is named as CIRM's next chief scientific officer will depend on who the agency selects as the next permanent president. Stay tuned to
The Scientist as we follow the situation at CIRM and discover who will fill Chiu's shoes.