CIRM chair Vito Imbasciani at the January CIRM board meeting, which was both online and in-person. California Stem Cell Report photoCalifornia’s $12 billion stem cell agency is under “’unprecedented strain” and is ready to impose a five-month hold on applications for the key, $15 million research awards that support the final steps in bringing revolutionary treatments to patients.
Robert Klein, Art Torres and Jonathon Thomas. Photo courtesy of the California Stem Cell ReportThe man considered to be the father of the $12 billion California stem cell agency popped up in the news twice this month, once in a $38 million Sacramento lawsuit and then again as the host this month of a Biden campaign fundraiser whose tickets cost as much as $100,000.
Sheersha Sulack and Donald Kohn (with glasses) earlier this year on the day she received a cell treatment.One year ago this month, five-year-old Sheersha Sulack asked Santa to bring her a suitcase to carry her toys with her for an arduous treatment that her parents hoped would save her from a rare, life-threatening affliction known as the bubble baby disease. Development of the therapy is part of a unique effort that has put the Golden State at the forefront of the development of gene and cell therapies.
CIRM Board Chairman Vito Imbasciani, with interim president Jonathan Thomas, photo courtesy of CIRMThe former chairman of the California stem cell agency is back on the job with the $12 billion agency – this time as its interim president while a search proceeds for a permanent chief executive officer.
Emily and Robbie with UCD's Diana Farmer. Photo courtesy of UCDThe California stem cell agency had a $9 million moment last week that involved a “stem cell fairy godmother,” two English bulldogs named Darla and Spanky, four lambs and a baby from Texas named Robbie. While it took the agency only moments to hand out the $9 million, it took the fairy godmother more than 25 years to make it happen.
The Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research building at University of California Irvine, a CIRM major facility. Photo courtesy of CIRMCalifornia’s $12 billion stem cell and gene therapy program could be treading water for the next 12 months in the view of at least one of its leaders as it searches for a new president of the 19-year-old enterprise. Past presidential searches have been burdened by a legal, dual executive arrangement that has been described by a former board member as a “dog’s breakfast.”
Maria T. Millan CIRM photoThe chief executive officer of California’s $12 billion stem cell and gene therapy program, Maria T. Millan, resigned abruptly this week, leaving what is the largest such state research effort in the nation without even an interim leader. Millan’s departure comes as the agency faces major challenges. They include expansion of an embryonic effort to assure the affordability of CIRM’s potential treatments that could cost millions of dollars. Some of the directors are also behind a move to sharpen its focus and reset its priorities.
Gene therapy, image by CI PhotosThe neuro task force of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, chaired by CIRM Director Larry Goldstein, is scheduled to meet next Wednesday morning (October 18th) to discuss an overall funding approach for allocating $1.5 billion in research toward neuro diseases like brain cancer and epilepsy.
Image by GoodIdeas via ShutterstockDirectors of the $12 billion California stem cell agency will face a fundamental question next week that could determine whether its efforts to produce revolutionary treatments for afflictions ranging from heart disease to cancer will live or die.
Come March 28, Vito Imbascani is scheduled to be sworn in as the new chairman of the $12 billion California stem cell agency – an 18-year-old state program to develop revolutionary treatments for such things as brain and blood cancers, heart disease, diabetes, sickle cell disease, spina bifida, incontinence, blindness, arthritis, HIV, stroke, epilepsy and much more.