Editorial: For $10,000, you get ...
By Sacramento Bee,
Sacramento Bee
| 04. 16. 2006
Frustrated by lawsuits that have held up funding for California's $3 billion stem cell research institute, some of San Francisco's most prominent philanthropists are holding a gala fundraiser for this state agency on May 22.
A press release for "Reach for Tomorrow, Research Today" says the event will offer "private scientific briefings" and "private tours" of nearby campuses for donors willing to contribute up to $10,000 per person, or $100,000 per table. The event also offers a VIP reception, a black-tie dinner and appearances by actress Julie Andrews, composer Marvin Hamlisch and others.
Presumably, the event will also draw university deans and biotech executives who want some exclusive face time with institute leaders - public officials who will be deciding on multi-million-dollar grants to universities and biotech companies. At least three of these public officials are helping to organize the event. These include Institute President Zach Hall, Oversight Committee Chairman Robert Klein II and Vice Chairman Ed Penhoet, listed as honorary co-chairs of "Reach for Tomorrow." (Details can be found at www.reachfortomorrow.info.)
What is wrong with this picture? Plenty, if...
Related Articles
By Emma McDonald Kennedy
| 10.29.2026
At the beginning of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s blockbuster documentary You Can See Everything, Billy Evans (partner of Theranos founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes), says that they decided to do the film for one purpose: “radical transparency.” As they work on “Theranos 2.0,” Evans and Holmes want to show the public that she has been misunderstood –– painted as a liar and a fraud in the public imagination (and the courts) despite, as she claims in the...
By Charles Schmidt, Undark | 09.25.2026
In 2010, scientists at the University of Tokyo and other institutions reported a startling achievement: They had successfully grown a pancreas made almost entirely of rat cells within the bodies of mice. The research was directed by Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a...
By Editors, Nature | 08.18.2026
Shinya Yamanaka doesn’t see himself as a celebrity. But people do recognize the stem-cell researcher when he’s out for a run, often while training for a marathon, on the streets of Kyoto, Japan.
Many of them call out words of...
By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 07.30.2026
As of this week in Montana, any biotech company with an experimental drug has a clear path to selling it to consumers. Companies whose drugs have been through preliminary testing—sometimes in as few as 10 healthy people—can pay $12,500 to...
