Posts Tagged: Stem cell agency

News

Stem cell agency, now flush with $5.5 billion, turns new page

Stem cell research using what's known as a PCR strip. (Image: Science Photo via Shutterstock)

California’s ambitious stem cell agency has launched itself on a new, $5.5 billion journey, approving a plan to hand out $182 million to researchers by the middle of next year and beefing up its efforts to bring equality to therapies and scientific labs.

News

Ballot battle underway to keep stem cell agency alive

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.

News

Stem cell agency refi: LAO sees $7.8 billion price tag

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. 

News

Stem cell agency eyes ballot perils

A liquid nitrogen bank containing stem cells.(Photo: Alena Pavlovich, via Shutterstock)

The 29 directors of the California stem cell agency are hearing a warning this week that certain types of their possible activities on behalf of a proposed $5.5 billion ballot initiative could lead to a criminal investigation by state or local law enforcement agencies. While that would seem to be an unlikely event, it has caught up another California public enterprise (the Bay Area Rapid Transit District).

News

Ballot targeted for $5.5 billion stem cell initiative

Stem cell research using what's known as a PCR strip. (Image: Science Photo via Shutterstock)

Backers of a California ballot initiative to provide $5.5 billion more for the state’s cash-strapped stem cell agency say they will take their first official step by the end of this month.That’s when they will submit the proposed measure to California election officials and trigger a many-months-long process. The effort is aimed at ensuring that the nearly 15-year-old research effort survives in a meaningful way beyond next year.

News

Strapped stem cell agency winding down

A liquid nitrogen bank containing stem cells.(Photo: Alena Pavlovich, via Shutterstock)

The $3 billion California stem cell agency on Monday served up the bad news with only a smattering of sugar coating. No more applications for research funding are being accepted. The cash is running out, perhaps as early as the end of August.

News

Stem cell agency halts new grant applications

A stem cell researcher with microscope and digital tablet. (Photo: moreimages, via Shutterstock)

The $3 billion California stem cell agency, which is running out of cash, has served notice that it would stop accepting applications for more research awards beginning next month. The low key announcement on Thursday is another step towards the looming demise of the 14-year-old agency, created by voters in November 2004.

News

Trump action on fetal tissue research affects California

Cell research in a laboratory. (Photo: SBshot87, via Shutterstock)

President Trump has sharply cut back on federal funding for fetal tissue research in a move denounced as both politically motivated and destructive of the hopes of millions of Americans suffering from life-threatening diseases. 

Analysis

Stem cell funding’s ‘valley of death’

A scientist performs cell research within a sterile environment. (Photo: Tonhom1009, via Shutterstock)

ANALYSIS: The California stem cell agency this week is tooting a $150 million horn and heralding its efforts to assist stem cell businesses with development of therapies that could ease the travails of everything from cancer to blindness. It is all about a financial “valley of death” that can imperil biotech firms as they seek to turn research into an actual product that can be used by patients.

News

California’s gene therapy effort is nation’s first

The science of gene therapy and health care, a concept illustration. (Image: Kentoh, via Shutterstock)

California today became the first state in the nation to launch itself into the sizzling field of gene therapy, backed by tens of millions of dollars and with the hope of creating treatments that could permanently cure afflictions ranging from hemophilia to cancer.

Support for Capitol Weekly is Provided by: