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.
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.
DEI hands, image by New AfricaThe California Institute of Regenerative Medicine has strong requirements for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. But there is clinker in the CIRM effort – secrecy.
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.
Baby Evangelina Padilla-Vaccaro on the day she received a gene therapy stem cell transplant.(Photo: UCLAhealth.org)Twenty children seeking treatment for a rare affliction called the “bubble baby disease” today have some big-time, good news concerning a life-saving genetic therapy that they were once denied as the result of a tangled affair that included private profit and the public funding of cutting-edge scientific research.
Monica Nava and her 1-year-old daughter Clementine, who suffers from the "bubble baby" affliction. (Family photo).The story about Jakob, Sheersha and Clementine is a 6,000-mile biomedical tale that spans the Atlantic. The story ranges from the Saskatchewan River in Canada to the dusty Tehachapi mountains in drought-plagued Southern California. And it is a story of children with a terrible and rare genetic affliction known as the bubble baby disease.
A scientist at work in a biomedical laboratory. (Photo: Tom Robertson, via Shutterstock)The California stem cell agency says it is doing “everything” it can to move forward on a gene therapy that has saved the lives of more than 50 persons but which has been pushed aside by the company that has exclusive rights to it. The issue has raised questions about the ethics of withholding care from babies and children suffering from a fatal disease.
Stem cell researcher and professor Larry Goldstein. (Photo: Screen capture, UCTV).Larry Goldstein, a well-known stem cell researcher at the University of California, San Diego who has received nearly $22 million in awards from the California stem cell agency, today was named to its governing board. It was the first time in the history of the 16-year-old agency that a scientist who has received agency awards has been appointed to the board.
A scientist with a pipette doing cellular research. (Photo: 18percentgrey, via Shutterstock)OPINION: At a time of budget crisis, Proposition 14 commits California to spending $5 billion (plus interest) that we don’t have, on a bureaucracy we don’t need, in pursuit of cures no one can guarantee. Specifically, Prop. 14 would refinance the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), also known as the state stem cell agency.
Robert Klein, left, and CIRM board member Jeff Sheey, right. At center is Board Vice Chair Art Torres. (Photo: California Stem Cell Report)The two men once worked together over the last 16 years to spend $3 billion in state funds on stem cell research in California. This week, however, they were very publicly on opposite sides of a ballot initiative to spend $5.5 billion more. The initiative is Proposition 14, which would require the state to borrow the additional billions.