State Stem Cell Agency Announces $275 Million from Bond Sales
By Peter Jamison in Government, Science and Tech
Thursday, Apr. 30 2009 @ 2:05PM
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| Help -- or at least cash -- is on the way |
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) announced yesterday that it has received $275 million in fresh funding from a recent sale of state bonds, saving the state stem-cell agency from a cash crunch that would have left it without money to fund new research by next fall.
Almost $68 million of that infusion will go to funding work that speeds basic scientific research towards clinical
applications through the agency's "Early Translational" grants. The
grants are intended to underwrite medical researchers' early steps
towards developing cell-based therapies for various degenerative
diseases, and are part of a larger shift at the agency towards funding
work with a foreseeable impact on patients' lives, rather than academic
research that may not bear fruit in the near future. The agency expects
to distribute an additional $200 million for the later stages of this
work.
CIRM is dealing with something of an identity crisis, as biomedical researchers and patient advocates debate how best to use the agency's remaining money. Allotted $3 billion to fund stem-cell research through Proposition 71 in 2004, the agency is facing a scientific landscape in which embryonic stem cell-based cures for high-profile diseases have not emerged as quickly as expected.
According to CIRM's announcement, the agency was given additional bond money beyond the $275 million, but some of it had to be used to repay a state loan. Last week, the California Stem Cell Report quoted Robert Feyer, bond counsel to the state treasurer's office, as stating that $505 million would be available for the agency.
Photo by kaibara87.
CIRM is dealing with something of an identity crisis, as biomedical researchers and patient advocates debate how best to use the agency's remaining money. Allotted $3 billion to fund stem-cell research through Proposition 71 in 2004, the agency is facing a scientific landscape in which embryonic stem cell-based cures for high-profile diseases have not emerged as quickly as expected.
According to CIRM's announcement, the agency was given additional bond money beyond the $275 million, but some of it had to be used to repay a state loan. Last week, the California Stem Cell Report quoted Robert Feyer, bond counsel to the state treasurer's office, as stating that $505 million would be available for the agency.
Photo by kaibara87.
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