California Stem Cell Scientists Get $75 Million Boost

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Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Genetics;  Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 17 Mar 2007 - 7:00 PDT


California's Stem Cell Agency has authorized $75.7 million in funding for 12 non-profit academic institutions. This follows $45 million approved last month for stem cell research. The twelve institutions were among 70 applications from researchers at 23 institutions.

Fabian Núñez, Speaker of the California State Assembly, said "This time of the year new life and new hope seem to be everywhere you look. With these new grants, California is continuing on the path of turning the hope and promise of stem cell research into the reality of therapies and cures for millions of Californians and people across the globe. The California spirit - the perseverance, creativity and resourcefulness that has made us a leader on everything from gold mining in the 19th Century to fighting global warming in this one - is fully present in our stem cell research teams. With today's grants California shows we are again blazing the trail."

Robert N. Klein, chairman of the ICOC (Independent Citizens Oversight Committee) which governs the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), said "As of today, California is the largest and most stable source of funding for human embryonic stem cell research in the world. The scientific projects proposed for our third set of grants are very strong, and it's clear that there is an abundance of scientific opportunities for the state's investments. We are off to an extraordinary start towards fulfilling the mandate of 7 million California voters, and the hopes of patients and families worldwide."

The grant will fund several projects, some of which include:

-- A study of how chemical modification of DNA in hESCs impacts nerve formation and the ability of stem cells to repair brain damage caused by stroke (UCLA)

-- Development of new ways of deriving hESCs and investigating the special capabilities of newly-derived human cell lines. (UCSF)

-- A proposal to develop neural cellular models of Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) that could be used to screen chemical libraries for novel drugs and to develop preclinical models of human disease (Salk Institute)

-- Building tools to better isolate heart and blood cells from differentiated populations of hESCs (Stanford)

-- A proposal to optimize the creation of liver cells for transplantation, and be able to monitor their in-vivo fate non-invasively (UC Davis)

-- A study of molecular mechanisms regulating hESC survival, focused on a very specific and promising class of growth factors (UC Irvine)

Click here to see the full report (pdf)

About CIRM

Governed by the ICOC, CIRM was established in 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions, was approved by California voters, and called for the establishment of an entity to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research, research facilities, and other vital research opportunities. For more information, please visit http://www.cirm.ca.gov.

Written and edited by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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