A CCST Fellow with extensive experience in both academic and industry circles has been named vice-chair of the Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee (ICOC) appointed to manage the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), approved via Proposition 71 last November. Edward Penhoet, co-founder of the Chiron Corporation and CEO from 1981 through 1998, was named vice-chair in December. The ICOC is composed of 29 members charged with handling the logistics of getting CIRM off the ground, dealing with issues ranging from intellectual property and the appropriateness of patenting genes to finding a location for CIRM and hiring staff.

"Implementing the initiative is a balancing act," said Penhoet. "But other grant-making organizations, such as the National Institutes of Health, already have proven practices that California can adopt, at least initially."

Penhoet brings a broad range of expertise to the job. The Chiron Corporation has established itself as one of the world's leading biotech firms, creating the vaccine for hepatitis B, discovering the virus that causes hepatitis C, and devising a way to measure viral loads of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In addition to his role in the creation and establishment of the Chiron Corporation, his experience includes service as dean of the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley where he was also a professor of biochemistry. Since Fall 2004, he has been president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, an organization dedicated to environmental conservation, science, and higher education in the San Francisco Bay area. Prior to assuming the presidency, he was the organization's chief program officer for Science and Higher Education.

He served as a CCST Council Member during 2000, after which he was named a CCST Fellow. He has received numerous awards, including the Association of Fundraising Professionals' Outstanding Philanthropist Award, the first Distinguished Faculty Award in the Life Sciences from the department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley, the Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year Award presented by Ernst & Young and Inc. Magazine, and the Harvard Business School Northern California Alumni Chapter Award as Entrepreneur of the Year.

Penhoet's other extensive experience includes past chairman of the California Health Care Institute, the Chabot Space & Science Center and the Bay Area Bioscience Center. He is a member of the boards of directors of the Bay Area Council, the Oakland Museum Foundation, the UC System Biotech Advisory Committee and the Advisory Board for the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, UCB. He also serves on the boards of Renovis, Inc., Zymogenetics, Inc., Eyetech Inc., and Chiron. He is a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, and has published more than 50 scientific articles and papers.