SAN DIEGO’S CHIEF EDUCATORSuperintendent Cindy Marten talks about why she wants a new evaluation process for teachers
and more flexibility in class sizes.SD5
WINNERS
DNAmagic:A team led byscientists from the ScrippsResearch Institute in La Jollaexpand the DNA genetic code,opening the door for new medicaltreatments and other life-changingadvancements.“A” stands for“awesome.”
Hot “Frozen”: Point LomaNazarene University student OliviaMowry (above right) makes a“Frozen”parody video extollingthe study-enhancing powers ofStarbucks and YouTube adoration
follows. Make that Champagnetoast a venti.
The big pop-in: President BarackObama visits San Diego for a fewwhirlwind hours. Equal opportunityprotesting, lobbying and lookiloo-ing ensues.
Global outrage: TheU.S.provides
manpower and resources to aidthe worldwide campaign to find thehundreds of Nigerian girls kidnappedfrom their boarding school by amilitant group lastmonth.
Shopping! Affordably fabulousBritish clothing chain Topshop/Topman will make its San Diegodebut at the Fashion Valley Mall inOctober. The line forms behind me.
LOSERS
Not the NFL Draft: Becausenothing is as important as the NFLDraft. Nothing. Shouldn’t you be
watching it right now?
Global health: A new federalreport says that global warmingis already leaving its mark andour extreme weather will onlyget worse. Time to break out theasbestos galoshes.
Target: As the discountretailer struggleswith the fallout ofthe Black Fridaydata breach,Target CEO GreggSteinhafel (right)resigns after 35 years
with the company.
Fire fears: Officials warn thatCalifornia is facing its worst fireseason ever. Check readyforwildfire.org and saveourH20.org forpreparedness tips.
The VA: Embattled Veterans AffairsSecretary Eric Shinseki faces
calls for his resignation whileannouncing a nationwideaudit of access to VA care.The San Diego VA remainsabove the fray.
KARLA PETERSON • U-T
WINNERS & LOSERS Your weekly news score card
The Scripps Research Institute’sJeanne Loring, shown at herDelMar home, is a leader in thestem-cell field. K.C. ALFRED • U-T
BRADLEY J. FIKES • U-T
Few medical advancesequal stem cells in theirpromise to treat condi-tions that currently haveno cure. FromParkinson’sdisease toAIDS to spinal-
cord injuries, scientists are gettingever closer to realizing that promisefor hundreds of millions of patients.Yet when Jeanne Loring began her
research pursuits in the late 1970s,few people knew what stem cellswere. These microscopic wonders,with their ability to turn into manydifferent types of cells in the body,fascinated her. She has devoted hercareer to studying them — and en-couraging others to do likewise.Loring, in short, is a stem-cell
evangelist.She commands respect worldwide
— not only because she was one ofthe first people to become proficient
Stem cell pioneer Jeanne Loringcollaborates with a wide range
of scientists and industry leadersto expand the field’s influence
SUNDAY
SAN DIEGO NEWSMAKERS, IDEAS + OPINIONSSUNDAYMAY 11, 2014 SECTION SD
S P R E A D I N GT H E G O S P E L
SEE LORING • SD2
Powerful ideas for your business.Explore the latest energy- and money-saving
solutions at our free Energy Showcase Expo, May 13.Register at sdge.com/energyshowcase
in producing human embryonicstem cells in the lab, but also be-cause her collaborative spirit hasbeen foundational in expandingthe stem-cell field to new genera-tions of scientists.At the request of the National
Institutes ofHealth, she co-wrotea manual on the subject to trainother researchers. She also pro-vided knowledge thatwas crucialin courtroom battles against apatent that had put a strangle-hold on stem cell studies nation-wide. And she helped establish atrailblazing training program forstem-cell scientists in SouthernCalifornia.Today, as a leading figure at
The Scripps Research Institutein La Jolla, Loring is widely con-sidered both a stem-cell pioneerand a key voice on the latest is-sues in the field.She’s a board member of the
institute that funds and coordi-nates much of the stem-cell re-search inCalifornia. She revels inteamwork with experts at otherscholarly institutions, in indus-try and from patient-advocacygroups. And she’s internationallyrenowned for her findings on howstem cells might treat neurologi-cal diseases.But Loring is happy to bemore
of a behind-the-scenes player.“Sometimes you hear about
scientists who are pie-in-the-skycrazy people, and you’ve got tolasso them back down to Earth.That’s not a problemwith Jeanne.She’s got her feet planted firmlyon the Earth,” said Daniel Ravi-cher, an attorney with the SantaMonica-based group ConsumerWatchdog and founder of thePublic Patent Foundation.Loring said she values the
dynamics of experts workingtogether. It’s a conspicuous con-trast to the largely solitary careerof her geologist father, who didmuch of his prospecting alone inthe deserts of Western states.“I could not see myself doing
that,” Loring said. “It was toolonely. The biological sciences re-quire you to talk to people a lot.”Unlike the “pure” academic
who regards partnerships withbusinesses as compromising sci-ence, Loring said ties with indus-try can be rewarding. Businessescan take basic research discover-ies and turn them into drugs andother therapies, she said, andthat “translational” arrangementis hard to replicate in awalled-offacademic setting.While working for biotechs
in the San Francisco Bay Arearelatively early in her career,Loring developed a patented
mouse model of Alzheimer’sdisease and a patented methodfor determining the amount ofplaque in brain cells taken fromdeceased Alzheimer’s patients.She also helped a company testfetal brain cells as a potentialtherapy for Parkinson’s disease;the technique failed because thetechnology was too primitive.Loring’s work nowmainly con-
cerns artificial embryonic stemcells, called induced pluripotentstemcells. Grown from skin, theydon’t raise the thorny ethical is-sues linked to embryonic stemcells and can be custom-madefor individuals.
Public dutyLoring frequently speaks out
on issues concerning science.As the recipient of governmentgrants, she said she has an obliga-tion to keep the public informedandmake thebest use of taxpayermoney.In 2006, Loring joined a legal
challenge to somepatents held bythe Wisconsin Alumni ResearchFoundation, or WARF, on deriv-ing human embryonic stem cells.The patents unfairly preventedmany scientists from engagingin the field, she said.The litigation, led by the non-
profit Consumer Watchdog, haslargely succeeded in reducing the
patents’ scope.Loring provided scientific ex-
pertise deemed pivotal in rebut-ting WARF’s assertions, saidattorney Ravicher. For example,she undermined the foundation’slegal claim that its derivationmethod wasn’t “obvious.”The WARF patents covered
a method of making human em-bryonic stem cells that was pre-viously used on various animals.The foundation reasoned thatapplying the method to humanembryos wasn’t obvious becausehuman embryos are differentfrom animal embryos.“(Loring)wastheonewhocame
up with the argument that whileall these embryos are indeeddifferent from human embryos,they’re all different from eachother as well,” Ravicher said.Over the years, Loring also has
warned her stem-cell colleaguesthat they can lose the public’strust because of repeated ex-amples of fraudulent or shoddyscience.Earlier this year, Japanese and
American scientists published re-search on how to produce stemcells through simple methodssuch as dipping cells in an acidbath. The research was laterfound to contain grave errors thatmade it invalid.Loring was interviewed by a
Japanese journalist about the de-bacle surrounding these so-called“STAP” cells.“He askedme, ‘Could that hap-
pen inyour lab?’ I saidno, because(our scientists) all work together.They’dhave to conspire,” she said.“The structure of the way you doscience can encourage dishones-ty, and you can discourage it bystructuring it differently.”
Not only for nerdsLoring was born in 1950 in
Tucson, Ariz., to William andElizabeth “Liz” Loring. She has asister, Anne.The family periodically moved
across the far West as her fatherprospected for uranium with aGeiger counter in desert afterdesert. Loring credits him withproviding an education that wasimpossible to get at the smalltowns where she went to school.“My father was a real intel-
lectual. He wrote poetry and heread all the classics, and he’d of-ten read them to me,” she said.“He expected my sister and I tobe articulate. He expected us toappreciate literature. I almost feltlike I was home-schooled. I wentto schools where I knew morethan the teachers did.”In 1967, Loring’s unofficial edu-
cation and her own studies paid
FROM SD1
Jeanne Loringholds a petri dishwith pluripotentstem cells froma Parkinson’spatient.HOWARD LIPIN • U-T
LORINGScientist knewshewanted towork in a fieldwith constantcollaboration
TREATMENTS REACHING PATIENTSBRADLEY J. FIKES • U-T
A ftermany years of wait-ing, a floodof newregen-erative-cell therapiesis finally reaching pa-
tients. Hundreds of clinical trialsfor these experimental treatmentsare under way across the world.In the United States, 774 trials
with stem or other regenerativecells are open to patients or soonwill be, according to clinicaltri-als.gov, which lists government-approved clinical testing in thiscountry and abroad. Of that total,147 are taking place in California.Oneof themost difficult tests in-
volving stemcells—repairing spi-nal-cord damage that has causedcomplete loss of movement andsensation below the injury site— is set to begin soon at UC SanDiego.Patients in that study will get
injections of fetal-derived neuralstemcells in and around the injurysite, along with physical therapyand immune-systemdrugs in casethere’s a reaction to the stemcells.The trial will use a device that de-livers precisely targeted “micro-injections” of cells to the targetedareas.The clinical trial will test safety
and look for early signs of efficacy,said Dr. Joseph Ciacci, a UC SanDiego neurosurgeon leading thetesting.A study published a year ago
found that in rats with spinal-cordinjuries, theneural stemcellssignif-icantly improvedmovement in thehindpaws.Ciacci,whoco-authoredthat study, saw the cells proliferateand fill in a spinal-cord cavity that
had resulted from the injuries.Such results supported testingthe therapy in people, he said, buthe declined to say whether he ex-pected to see any improvement inthose patients.“I really don’t know, because it’s
not been done,” Ciacci said.The clinical trial is expected
to start in June. It’s intended foradults 18 to 65 years old who suf-fered their injury at least one yearago but no more than two yearsago. For more information, visitutsandiego.com/ucsdspinal or callAmber Faulise at (858) 657-5175.Another type of stem cells,
mesenchymal stromal, mightbe described as the duct tape of
regenerative cells. Generally de-rived from bone marrow, theyare being tested for treatmentof pulmonary fibrosis, multiplesclerosis, kidney transplants,liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis ofthe knee, stroke and many otherconditions. Worldwide, 226 trialsare being conducted with thesecells, including 45 in the U.S. and12 in California, according to clini-caltrials.gov.These cells function as “natural
immune regulators,” said JacquesGalipeau, a professor of hematol-ogy and medical oncology at theWinshipCancer Institute at Emo-ryUniversity inAtlanta. Galipeauis leading a study on using these
cells to treat Crohn’s disease, aninflammatory autoimmune disor-der of the bowels. Information onhis test can be found by search-ing for “Galipeau” at clinicaltrials.gov.Mesenchymal stromal arebaby-
seem to be able to mobilize frombonemarrow and other tissues inwhich they nest— fat, for example—andparticipate in the repair re-sponse,” Galipeau said. “And a bigpart of what they do is to regulate
inflammation.”While Ciacci’s trial uses stem
cells taken from other people,Galipeau is using each patient’sownmesenchymal cells that weremultiplied in the laboratory andinfused back into that person.Nothing needs to be done to
the cells — “no genetic engineer-ing, nothing spooky,” Galipeausaid. “The natural property theypossess is that they hose downinflammation.”The anti-inflammatory proper-
ty of these cells makes them suit-able for treating a wide range ofimmune diseases, Galipeau said.Larry Goldstein, head of stem
cell research at UC San Diego,said stem-cell treatments arereaching clinical trials “prettyspeedily,” considering how muchbasic research had to be done toget the technology ready.“Brain injury, spinal-cord in-
jury, neurodegenerative disease,drug development — it’s really aterrific broad portfolio of thingsthat are moving into the clinic,”Goldstein said. “The thing thatmakes me most unhappy is, as aconsumer, I desperately want ev-erything to be ready to apply topatients successfully tomorrow,not in years. But we’ve got to do itby the book so that we don’t hurtanybody, and we have to do it in away that’s efficacious.“But I’malways frustratedat the
rate of progress. If you have a sickfamilymember or you yourself aresick, it’s never fast enough.”
UC San Diego neurosurgeon Dr. Joseph Ciacci will be leading a clinical trial involvingstem cells to treat paralysis from spinal-cord injury. HOWARD LIPIN • U-T
Hundreds of clinical trials using stem or regenerative cells are taking place in California and around the world
“Sometimes you hear about scientists who are pie-in-the-sky crazy people, and you’ve got to lasso them back downto Earth. That’s not a problem with Jeanne. She’s got herfeet planted firmly on the Earth.” Daniel Ravicher • attorney with ConsumerWatchdog
Loring’s latest pursuitsJeanne Loring’s current projectsinclude:
•Eight San Diego-area Parkinson’spatients are expected to receive anIPS cell treatment Loring helpeddevelop. Brain cells grown from thepatient’s own IPS cells are to betransplanted into their brains nextyear, if federal regulators approve.
• In mouse models of multiplesclerosis, therapy with neural stemcells restored movement, some-thing Loring wants to try in people.Surprisingly, the treated mice im-proved although the transplantedcells all died.
•Stem cells from endangered spe-cies such as the white rhino (above)have been created by Loring and herlab with the help of the San DiegoZoo.This frozen collection of cellsmay one day allow the resurrectionof species verging on extinction orperhaps already extinct.SEE LORING • SD8
U-T SAN DIEGO | SUNDAY • MAY 11, 2014 SD3
off when she won a Nation-al Merit Scholarship. Themoneyallowedher to attendthe University of Washing-ton in Seattle, where sheearned a bachelor’s degreein molecular biology.Loring had started out as
an English major and addedscience classes as a second-ary interest.“Iwasgoodatscience,butI
thought itwasonlyfornerds,”Loring said.She soon changed her
mind. “I found I was doinga lot better in the scienceclasses than I was in the lit-erature classes, and I wasenjoying themmore.”Loring described herself
as discreetly “ultra-com-petitive” during her univer-sity days. While working toland top grades on tests, sheavoided calling attention toherself for fear of offendingmale egos.“I got the highest score in
my biochemistry class, andtheprofessorannouncedthatin class. I refused to go upthere, because I didn’t wantanyone paying attention tome,” she recalled. “I didn’twant the pressure— ‘OhmyGod, a girl beat me.’ I didn’twant to evoke that.”Loring continued her
schooling with graduatestudies at the University ofOregon inEugene,wheresheran into trouble: Her adviserwanted her to work on herown, not collaborate withothers.“It seems absurd in retro-
spect, but his style was, ‘Youdo your own project.’ Youcould talk with other peoplebut you couldn’t work withthem. He kept getting angrywith me for that,” Loring re-membered.In another development,
Loring met her future hus-band, David Barker, at thesame university. He was aprofessor there, and theywere both married at thetime.“It was quite a scandal,”
she said.(Barker’s own career is
notable; he was once thechief scientific officer for
the DNA sequencing giantIllumina, which is head-quartered in San Diego.)Loring eventually ob-
tained a doctorate in devel-opmental neurobiology atthe University of Oregon.It was a direct precursor toher work with embryonicstem cells.“I studied neural crest
stem cells. There wereno embryonic stem cells(known to scientists) then;thosewere notmade (in thelab) until the early 1980s,”she said. “My thesis was— in a very primitive way— how neural crest cellsmade the decision to be aneuron or pigment cell, andhow I could influence themby culturing them differ-ently. The concept of havinga cell that could domultiplethings interested me.”
Academia and biotechLoring began her profes-
sional career as a tempo-rary assistant professor atUC Davis in 1982. She leftfive years later, concludingthat she would never get atenure-track position there.
She was also eager to beginputting her research knowl-edge tomore practical uses.That opportunity came in
1987,whenshewashiredasasenior staff scientist atHanaBiologicsinAlameda.Amongitsprojects, thebiotechcom-panywasdevelopinga treat-ment forParkinson’sdiseaseusing cells grown from fetalbrains.“It’s a completely differ-
entworld than inacademia,”Loring said. “We’re talkingabout clinical trials ... andI learned from them that itwas possible to go froma labexperiment into a clinicaltrial.”But the envisioned treat-
ment didn’t work, and HanaBiologics went under.Loring kept adding to her
skills with each new job.At the next workplace,
GenPharm in the Bay Area,Loring designed the mousemodelofAlzheimer’sdisease.She and colleagues becameskilledatwritingapplicationsfor federal grants, mainly forstem-cell research.“It was the richest scien-
tific environment I was ever
in, and it was the most col-laborative,” Loring remem-bered.GenPharm failed in 1995
aftera lawsuitderailedplansfor it toholdapublicoffering.Loring was more fortunate:She had four years left on aSmall Business InnovationGrant for making rat em-bryonic stem cells, and itwas transferable to anothercompany.“I learned that if you have
your own money, you havelots more choices,” Loringsaid.
Access battleDuring the late 1990s, she
decided it was time to movefrom rat embryonic stemcells to the human kind. Shefounded a company to do so— Arcos Biosciences in SanMateo.Producing human embry-
onic stem cells was muchmore difficult because theembryos and governmentfunding for such researchwere harder to obtain at thetime.It became even more dif-
ficult when the Wisconsin
Alumni Research Founda-tion received patents forcreating human embryonicstem cells. University ofWisconsin scientist JamieThomson became famousfor isolating those long-elu-sive cells in 1998.TheWARFpatents fright-
rived nine lines of humanembryonic stemcells, whichwere among the lines Presi-dent George W. Bush ap-proved for federal fundingin August 2001. They weresubsequently acquired fromArcos byCyThera, a SanDi-ego-based biotech firm.That company, since re-
named as ViaCyte, is pre-paring to start human clini-cal trials of a treatment forType 1 diabetes, using insu-lin-producing cells derivedfrom embryonic stem cells.Loring moved to San Di-
ego in 2003, when she re-turned to academia by join-ing the Sanford-BurnhamMedical Research Institute.Evan Snyder, a prominent
stem-cell scientist, jokinglysaid he saved Loring fromthe “dark side” — industry—by recruiting her.Together, they launched
what may have been thefirst stem-cell “core facility”in Southern California andthe region’s first trainingprogram for stem-cell re-searchers, Snyder said.Even after Loring moved
to The Scripps ResearchInstitute in 2007, she main-tained her professional en-deavors with Snyder.“Wewerealwaysco-work-
ers and collaborators,” Sny-der said. “In fact, she hasan adjunct appointment atSanford-Burnham.Shestayscompletely involved, andI’vestayedactively involvedwiththe Scripps program.”
Away from scienceWith so much to do, it’s
hard for Loring to find lei-sure time. There’s alwayssome task in the lab. AndevenwhenLoring travels, it’salmost alwayswork-related.“I go toaconferenceprob-
ably everymonth,” she said.“It’s not a break from work,it’s working someplace else.Part of our jobs is to tellpeople about our work, andyou have to go somewhereto do it.”But Loring and her hus-
band give themselves onerespite a year: They take asolar eclipse vacation.“The eclipse vacations
are the perfect thing for us,”Loring said. “Youcanalwayswork, but the eclipse is go-ing to happen at a certaintime and a certain place,and you have to be therewhen it happens.Almost ev-ery year, there is an eclipsesomewhereexotic—Bolivia,Zambia. We went to Libya.”A decade ago, when there
was no solar eclipse to view,Loring and Barker took avacation to Australia foranother purpose: Aftermany years together, theygot married.
Astronomy is among the interests Jeanne Loring pursues in her scant free time. The Scripps Research Insti-tute researcher and her husband try to take an annual solar eclipse vacation. K.C. ALFRED • U-T
LORING • She has long been driven to apply knowledge to practical usesFROM SD3
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