A stem cell researcher at UC Davis. (Photo: AJ Cheline, UC Davis, via The Stem Cellar)Backed by $17 million in cash from California’s stem cell agency, researchers at UC Davis this month are launching “the world’s first clinical trial using stem cells to treat spina bifida before the child is born.”
A liquid nitrogen bank containing a suspension of stem cells. (Photo: Elena Pavlovich, via Shutterstock)OPINION: The Golden State boasts the 5th largest economy, the biggest and best public university systems and, thanks to support from California voters, it’s the global epicenter for advancing stem cell research and treatments for chronic diseases and conditions that will afflict nearly all California families.
The state Capitol in Sacramento, home of the Legislature. (Photo: SchnepfDesign, via Shutterstock))In the California Legislature, all types of legislative measures (bills, resolutions and constitutional amendments), as well amendments to those measures, can only be introduced or processed if they are in “Legislative Counsel form.” The purpose is to ensure greater consistency in California’s statutes. The nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Counsel serves as legal counsel and bill drafters to California legislators and the governor.
A potential voter fills out a voter registration form. (Photo: Rawpixel, com, via Shutterstock)California has now reached an historic high of over 21 million registered voters. The current PDI voter file, after a full refresh of county files, puts total voter registration at 21,086,077. As a share of eligible voters, this puts the state at 83%, a higher rate of registration than we have seen since the presidential election of 1940.
DNA is injected into a stem cell. (Photo: Spectral-Design, via Shuttertock)The California stem cell agency has just finished pumping $5.3 million into the fight to save the lives of Covid-19 victims. And — in a ballot-box bonus — its efforts are already surfacing in the ballot campaign to rescue the agency from its own demise. The agency is running out of money. It will begin closing its doors this fall without major financial support that it hopes will come from Proposition 14, a $5.5 billion bond measure on the November ballot.
Robert Klein, who spent six years as the state stem cell agency's chairman, addresses issues related to the November ballot initiative. (Photo: David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report)The folks who are trying to save the $3 billion California stem cell agency from financial extinction are using a well-worn technique that goes back to ancient Egypt, at least by some accounts. It is expensive, depending on what you are peddling, and generates a return as low as 1 percent. It is direct mail, but with a significant twist.
Illustration: Aleksey Novikov, via Shutterstock),California’s stem cell agency, in an emergency action, has allocated $5 million for research into treatments for Covid-19 and set the deadline for the first applications for one week from today. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) approved the funding Friday during an emergency meeting of its governing board.
A laboratory stem cell researcher uses a laptop in conjunction with a microscope. (Photo: moreimages, via Shutterstock)A small firm in Menlo Park, Ca., is probably the only company in the nation that is named after the number of a particular human protein. It is a small number too, only 47. But it has large implications for California’s financially strapped state stem cell agency.
A pipette and vessels usd in stem cell research. (Photo: CI Photos, via Shutterstock)The price tag for refinancing California’s unique and ambitious stem cell research program could run to close to $7.8 billion, give or take a few hundred million dollars or more. So says the state’s legislative analyst in a financial analysis of a proposed ballot initiative that is likely to be on next November’s ballot.
Voters head into their precinct to cast their ballots. (Photo: Shutterstock)The people who go to the polls in California are very different from those who don’t—a gap that has far-reaching implications for our democracy and political future. The fact that a relatively small, unrepresentative group of Californians elect officials and make policies is an urgent challenge for the state, especially as the population continues to