With the U.S. National Institute of Health poised to fund more grants in both non-embryonic and embryonic stem cell research, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine hopes to focus on the research that can move the science to treating patients. But it’s set to run out of cash. Both Science and the LA Times have written about this recently (links below)
Last Friday’s issue of Science, described the agency’s quest to sell private bonds so that the Institute could pay out grant funds it has already awarded. As things stands now, CIRM is set to go broke in September.
Constance Holden describes the plans of CIRM leader Robert Klein to sell private bonds, noting that he is more optimistic than several others about the possibilities of success.
The article also quotes James Kovach, head of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato, California as saying that he expects state initiatives such as CIRM to survive.
Given California’s financial crisis, an editorial in Monday’s Los Angeles Times questions whether the spending is a good use of money, particularly given the agency’s leadership by Klein.
The leadership and governing structure of CIRM have come under a lot of criticism. Its 29-member board is politically appointed and must include patient advocates as well as high-ranking officials from the institutions most likely to receive CIRM funds. Its plans to give loans and grants to companies have been called both essential and overambitious. The agency has also been praised for taking a leadership role in drafting guidelines and for helping to maintain a U.S. pipeline of stem-cell scientists.
Stem-cells the $3 billion dollar question (subscription required)
US policies on human embryonic stem cells (subscription required)
California against cronyism (subscription required)
CIRM’s search for a president (free online access)
CIRM training grants approved, but awards uncertain (free online access, with links to relevant news stories)
Advocates of state funds point out that, even if NIH is allowed to fund more types of research, it is only able to award a small fraction of the grant applications it receives. They also point out states can still fund research that the federal government cannot, particularly research that creates or destroys embryos. The Dickey-Wicker amendment prohibits funds for deriving new lines from early (about 2-5 day-old) embryos no longer needed by fertility clinics as well as for trying to generate new embryonic stem cell lines genetically matched to an existing individual. (See Embryonic education)
For people without subscriptions, there are more excerpts from the Science article on the California Stem Cell Report.