California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

CIRM offers $59M to inspire young scientists

John Carroll — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:11:51 -0400

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has handed out $59 million in research grants to 23 young scientists. The New Faculty Grants are intended to encourage promising scientists early in their careers. That is seen as a particularly perilous time for scientists, who typically won't qualify for a major NIH grant until they're in their early 40s. The money is distributed over the course of five years to cover salary and research costs. And more money will be handed out after a vote at the CIRM in September.

"Who would dedicate their life to a field where they could not have a chance to prove the value of their ideas until they were 43?" said Robert Klein, chairman of the state stem cell institute. "Without California's funding, the gap in federal funding would eliminate an entire generation of new clinicians and scientists."

--read the report from the San Diego Union-Tribune

California's stem cell boom spurs research bonanza

John Carroll — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:50:15 -0400

As head of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Alan Trounson is pushing hard to inspire a medical revolution in the space of a single decade. The Wall Street Journal looks at the rapidly changing research field, and how California's $3 billion commitment to stem cell research over 10 years has already triggered a $1.2 billion boom in spending on new research facilities.

The institute says the initial burst of investment has already drawn 24 top scientists to the state with 33 younger researchers joining the migration to California. But the new facilities being built will house 2,200 researchers, the equivalent of the entire membership of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Now Trounson is preparing to fund disease teams at a cost of $20 million each that can advance therapies to the clinic in five years. The institute is considering a new loan fund that would give the state a stake in commercial successes.

- read the article from the Wall Street Journal

California initiative triggers research spending boom

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

Being forced to wait for the courts to clear California's stem cell institute of legal challenges gave research institutions in the state extra time to lay careful plans for a massive expansion. When the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine unleashed a torrent of $271 million in grants days ago, it laid the stage for nearly $1.2 billion in new lab space as institutions put up an additional $900 million of their own funds. According to GlobeSt.com, that money will finance an additional 800,000 square feet of lab space. And most of the competing institutions elected to take their grants up front at a nine percent discount rather than obtain the full amount in two years time.

One reason why new lab space is needed for human ESC work is federal law, which expressly forbids the use of any federal funding for most of the work being done in the field. Once built, the new labs are likely to trigger a new migration of scientific talent, further advancing the state's reputation in the field.

Stanford, for example, qualified for the biggest single grant of $43 million by matching it with $156 million in new money. And the money will be used to build a 200,000 square foot research facility devoted to stem cell science.

- read the story in GlobeSt.com

ALSO: In an example of the way that California's stem cell institute is spurring a building boom of new research facilities, the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine is pushing ahead with plans to construct a $115 million research center in La Jolla, helped with $43 million in state money. Report