StemCell Therapy

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond is in California this week, knocking on the doors of disgruntled CEOS tired of high taxes, trying to lure them to expand research and manufacturing facilities to Scotland.

Top on the list of targets are businesses in the life sciences industry ---- which is a strong sector in San Diego County that has seen rapid growth and attracted millions of dollars in investment locally.

However, one of the first big deals to emerge from Salmond's visit may come in the renewable energy field ---- another strong area in San Diego County ---- following a meeting between Salmond and California Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Salmond said that he and Brown agreed to have their staff look into drafting a memorandum of understanding that addresses how their two governments could share ---- or pursue ---- renewable energy research or manufacturing. One of the first avenues to pursue may be to form joint research work at the university level, Salmond said.

"Yes, we think the relations between Scotland and California could be a flourishing one," Salmond said. "We've set up a working party to look at potential cooperation in renewable energies."

The life sciences field is another area of interest to Salmond in Scotland, which gained international fame with the cloning of "Dolly" the sheep in the 1990s.

Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell by scientists at the Roslin Institute and the biotechnology company PPL Therapeutics, located near Edinburgh in Scotland.

Public relations statements distributed before Salmond's visit this week indicate that Scotland is ranked No. 1 in the world for stem-cell research, which is yet another field that San Diego County has gained high marks globally.

Of interest to Salmond is Carlsbad-based Life Technologies Corp., a biotechnology and medical instrumentation company that employs about 370 workers at a manufacturing and distribution facility in Paisley, located in the west central Lowlands area of Scotland.

"We have not made any further announcements in reference to what our plans are there," said Patty Zamora, a spokeswoman with Life Technologies.

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ECONOMY: Scottish First Minister tries to lure California businesses overseas

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