Posts Tagged: CIRM

News

CIRM considers hold on grants amid deluge of applications

CIRM chair Vito Imbasciani at the January CIRM board meeting, which was both online and in-person. California Stem Cell Report photo

California’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.

News

Amidst CalPERS suit, CIRM founder hosts megabucks Biden fundraiser

Robert Klein, Art Torres and Jonathon Thomas. Photo courtesy of the California Stem Cell Report

The 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.

News

Rare stem cell success gives young girl life outside the bubble

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.

News

CA stem cell agency gets interim chief

CIRM Board Chairman Vito Imbasciani, with interim president Jonathan Thomas, photo courtesy of CIRM

The 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.

News

Amidst morale ‘crisis,’ CA stem cell agency could take months to find new president

The Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research building at University of California Irvine, a CIRM major facility. Photo courtesy of CIRM

California’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.”

News

Stem cell agency has pumped nearly $1 billion into neuro disease research

Gene therapy, image by CI Photos

The 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.

News

California researchers vie for millions in stem cell dollars

Photo by ANDREI ASKIRKA via Shutterstock

Nine California research organizations will vie behind closed doors this week as the state’s stem cell agency scores their bids to kick off what would be a first-in-the-nation, $80 million manufacturing network to speed the development of revolutionary medical therapies.

News

Stem cell agency chooses new board chair amidst funding uncertainty

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.

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