Posts Tagged: CIRM

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.

News

In unusual move, Gov. Newsom smacks stem cell agency

Gov. Gavin Newsom at the State of the State Address in January. (Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald)

Gov. Gavin Newsom has rebuked California’s stem cell agency about its conduct of the election of a new chairperson for the $12 billion enterprise, a process that has been disrupted with the withdrawal of one candidate and the addition of a new one.

News

Clinical trials okayed for children with ‘bubble boy’ disease

Andrea Fernandez and her son Jakob, who suffers from 'bubble boy' disease. (Photo: Courtesy of Fernandez family)

Nearly three years after a British firm abandoned a successful therapy for the life-threatening “bubble baby” disease, children will again be treated in a clinical trial backed with millions of dollars from the state of California. “It’s the best Christmas gift ever,” said the mother of an afflicted child, Andrea Fernandez. 

News

Another high-stakes election looms — but largely under the radar

A photo illustration of bacteria as seen through a research microscope. (Photo: Per Bengtsson, via Shutterstock)

California has another election coming up this fall, but it is not your usual political campaign free-for-all. Instead, it involves the leadership of the $12 billion state stem cell agency, which is trying mightily to develop “miraculous” treatments and cures for diseases that afflict — according to its backers — half of the families in California.

News

Stem cell: $137 million buys more clinical trials, shared labs, research

A laboratory scientist uses a pipette to manipulate stem cells. (Photo: Vshivkova, via Sutterstock)

It was a $137 million day for the Golden State’s stem cell agency — no small event even for an enterprise that is backed by billions. The scientific scope covered by the $137 million was impressive. It ranged from bolstering the vaunted Alpha Clinic Network initiated around the state by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is legally known, to raising the number of CIRM’s clinical trials to 83. 

News

Stem cell agency lists own board members with conflicts of interest

A stem cell researcher at UC Davis. (Photo: UC Davis Stem Cell Program.)

In a first in its 18-year history, the California stem cell agency has begun posting on its website a list of its governing board members who have conflicts of interest as they award hundreds of millions of dollars. The most recent example comes next Tuesday in a $48 million round that will benefit at least 16 public and private colleges in the Golden State and up to 400 students at a cost of $58,220 each.

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