California’s Stem Cell Agency Awards $230M for 14 Research Grants

On Wednesday, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced that it will award $230 million in grants for stem cell research focused on cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, 10/29).

Fourteen California research teams will receive the grants. The awards call for researchers to prepare a product for human clinical trials within four years (Kupper, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/29).

Four of the 14 projects will use embryonic stem cells. The remaining projects involve adult stem cells, cancer stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells (Pollack, New York Times, 10/29).

Canada's Cancer Stem Cell Consortium contributed $35 million to the project and Medical Research Council U.K. contributed $8 million (Brown, San Francisco Business Times, 10/28).

Broadcast Coverage

On Wednesday, KPCC's "KPCC News" reported on CIRM's research grants. The segment includes comments from:

Paula Cannon, HIV/AIDS researcher at the University of Southern California; and
Eduardo Marban, cardiology researcher at Cedars Sinai Medical Center (Jahad, "KPCC News," KPCC, 10/28).

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