Intel Chair Pledges $5 Million for New UCSF Embryonic Stem Cell Research Program

Intel Corp. Chair Andrew Grove has pledged $5 million to help launch a new embryonic stem cell research program at the University of California-San Francisco, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Grove has promised to match donations of $50,000 to $500,000 to the UCSF Stem Cell Discovery Fund, established to support the university's developmental and stem cell biology program. Although most of the biology program will focus on studies of animal cells, researchers will study some human cells. The university will purchase the human embryonic stem cells from the NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry or procure them from embryos discarded by fertility clinics. "UCSF is primed to make headway in the field of human embryonic stem cell research. The campus' contribution to the field has already been significant," Grove said. His donation to UCSF, one of the first universities to conduct embryonic stem cell research in the early 1980s, will provide UCSF researchers with "a competitive boost in the hottest new field in biomedicine," the Mercury News reports. Grove also "joins the growing ranks of those who have grown impatient with federal reluctance" to support embryonic stem cell research, the Mercury News reports (Krieger, San Jose Mercury News, 8/9).