D. SCHARF/SCIENCE FACTION/CORBISAt first glance, stem-cell researchers in the United States have much to celebrate. Former president George W. Bush's restrictions on funding stem-cell research are expected to end on 7 July, on the orders of President Barack Obama. That's also when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will release new guidelines for human embryonic stem-cell (ESC) research. These could make hundreds more cell lines eligible for federal funding — which is good news for stem-cell researchers.
Other policies, meanwhile, provide a more direct stimulus. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 includes a one-time cash injection of $10.4 billion for the NIH, some of which will be used to support stem-cell science. And the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a $3-billion, 10-year state initiative in San Francisco, has already awarded more than $760 million for building new labs, training more scientists, and for stem-cell research projects.
"Any increase at NIH will lead to some increase of stem-cell funding because stem-cell research fits in so many of the centres and institutions here," says Story Landis, head of the NIH Stem Cell Task Force. She notes that some of the stimulus money will be awarded to postdocs, and $100 million can go to sweeten start-up packages for junior faculty members.
But this flurry of good news is tempered by sobering economic realities. As scientists need years of focused training, an unsustained burst of funding in a particular field may lead to institutions competing for existing scientists rather than encouraging people to develop new specialities. "In the short term," says James Fossett, associate professor at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy in Albany, New York, "it's going to be a good time to be a stem-cell scientist — if you are already one."
State restrictions
Mahendra Rao: "Companies are rushing to set up programmes."NIHAs federal policy becomes more permissive, some states, including Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, introduced legislation that would actually restrict stem-cell research and funding, notes Christopher Scott, who heads the programme for stem cells in society at Stanford University in California. Other states that have been financing such research have less incentive to do so. "If I was a young scientist, I would look very closely at the state I'm going to, the NIH funding in that state, and the possibility that Obama might not be there in four years," he says.
Still, there's no question that stem-cell research, both embryonic and non-embryonic, has surged worldwide. At the end of 2004, membership of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), based in Deerfield, Illinois, was 1,350; by mid-2009, it had more than doubled to over 2,900, of whom nearly 60% are in North America. Many are young: more than 40% identify themselves as graduate students or postdocs.
And their job prospects aren't totally reliant on new funding. Five North American universities that recently advertised junior faculty positions for stem-cell scientists had funded the new posts, at least in part, with reallocations from institutional or departmental budgets. Other funding came from grants, philanthropists and state governments. (One institute, the University of California, Riverside, later put its search on hold because of the state's budget crisis.)
Search-committee members Asrar Malik of the University of Illinois in Chicago and Ina Dobrinski of the University of Calgary, Alberta, felt that more people were applying and that they were better qualified for the jobs than in previous years. Both attributed this to growth in the field, although Dobrinski thought hiring freezes elsewhere might also be a contributing factor.
"We're hiring a bunch of stem-cell scientists," says Shlomo Melmed, dean of medical faculty at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "Now that there is such a lot of emphasis on stem-cell biology, we're going to have a big, big need to prove to the taxpayer that this does have benefits to patients." The centre has already recruited Clive Svendsen from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to lead a new regenerative-medicine institute, and it plans to hire three more senior-level and three junior-level faculty members. Existing investigators have CIRM and NIH funds, Melmed says, but the institute will open with funds from philanthropists and the centre's own budget. (He declined to reveal exact amounts.)
Pablo Ross (left) sees interest in induced pluripotent stem cells (above) increasing.S. SUHR, E. CHANG, P. ROSS, AND J. CIBELLI. DEPT ANIMAL SCI., MSUResearcher Pablo Ross, from the cellular reprogramming lab at Michigan State University in East Lansing, is looking for his next position. He has encountered fewer faculty positions, but a higher percentage earmarked for stem cells. "Many departments that were not very interested in [induced pluripotent stem cells] and ESCs are now interested in adding to their programmes," Ross says. He already has job offers and more interviews scheduled.
Translational research seems to generate particular enthusiasm. In the face of California's budget crisis and its reliance on state bond sales, CIRM has focused on plans to fund projects that prepare stem-cell technologies for clinical trials. In December, it plans to give out $20 million apiece to up to 12 teams, with the aim of starting clinical trials in four years.
But finding stem-cell positions remains challenging for some, says Hanna Mikkola, an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who chairs the junior investigators committee of the ISSCR. The society's annual meeting — to be held on 8–11 July in Barcelona, Spain — has several events that target young scientists. Along with providing information from journal editors and funding agencies on how to craft successful submissions, these events will also advise people on how to get jobs within those organizations. On the upside, Mikkola notes that limited funds can prompt more rigorous thinking and even fuel interdisciplinary research. Her advice for researchers is to let their passion for science keep discouragement at bay.
Eager industry
Large pharmaceutical companies could provide the sharpest short-term increase in job opportunities, says Mahendra Rao, vice-president of research in regenerative medicine and stem-cell technologies at Invitrogen, a division of California-based Life Technologies in Carlsbad. "They are all rushing to establish stem-cell programmes," he says.
The easing of restrictions plus recent approvals by the US Food and Drug Administration for ESC trials could increase investments in regenerative medicine, says Rao, especially by companies with big research budgets and shrinking product pipelines. GlaxoSmithKline and Harvard University, for instance, announced a $25-million deal last year. Pfizer has launched a regenerative medicine unit in Cambridge, UK, where policies governing ESC research are both friendlier and more predictable than in the United States. In May, the company announced an investment of $100 million in stem-cell research. Rao doubts that tool and reagent companies will expand their stem-cell departments much, but scientific successes, friendlier policies and approval for clinical trials will eventually increase interest from venture capitalists. This could mean that start-ups, too, will begin hiring.
Regardless, scientists still seem to find ways to pursue exciting science, says Landis. When President Bush closed off federal funding for ESC lines created after August 2001, there were fears that output and the supply of new researchers would dry up.
"If you look at the continuing growth in the stem-cell literature, it's not as big a concern," Landis says. "I think the field has exploded."
Versatile cells seek similar scientists
Whether applicants are looking for positions in academia or in industry, experience working with finicky cells can make resumés stand out. As cell therapies move toward the clinic, skill with cells will be more in demand, says Walter Funk, a former employee of biotech company Geron of Menlo Park, California, and a consultant to the biotech industry.
"That's going to require an additional set of skills — cell banking, cell manufacturing, regulatory affairs — just to produce the cells needed for clinical study," says Funk.
Even if the goal is to use cells for drug screening or disease modelling instead of cell therapies, homogeneous cell products will be essential. California's Stanford University and Universities of California in Berkeley and San Francisco are all establishing core facilities for growing stem cells.
Geoff Sargent's stem-cell expertise won him a job setting up a pluripotent-stem-cell lab with the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco. But more important than any particular skill, he says, is a willingness to move beyond one's comfort zone.
"Companies evolve," says Sargent, who lost his job at Advanced Cell Technology when the firm shut down its facilities in Alameda, California. "They'll start out with research, and then when they get to therapeutics, they need different skill sets."
Shifts are happening across the entire stem-cell field, says Thorsten Schlaeger, head of the human embryonic-stem-cell core facility at Harvard Medical School. Today, more researchers than ever before have experience in culturing pluripotent stem cells, but practitioners will need to adapt to having many more types of cells available. Career planning requires acknowledging that the techniques in demand today might not be sought after tomorrow.
"To a student it could appear that this is a field to be in forever," Schlaeger says, "but you could be behind the curve if you're thinking of what's great now." Stem-cell researchers will need to be as flexible as the cells they study.
Asked what expertise Pfizer will be seeking for positions in its new regenerative medicine unit, Ruth McKernan, the unit's chief scientific officer, says she wants candidates whose scientific curiosity extends beyond the narrow area of their training. Intellectual agility will be more important than any particular technique, she says. "We don't know what we'll have them doing a year from hire."
M.B.
