California Injects New Life into Stem Cell Research

Today the State of California approved for release $181 million in funding for stem cell research. This funding which was approved by the voters of California in the landmark proposition 71 will go to fund research grants across the state.

The funding today alone makes California's Institute for Regenerative Medicine the largest program in the world.

Learn more here

Professor Larry Goldstein and David Granet, M.D. discuss the basic science behind stem cell research.

In October, CIRM announced that it had received 232 applications from researchers at 36 California non-profit institutions for Scientific Excellence through Exploration and Development (SEED) Grants. SEED Grants are intended to bring new ideas and new investigators into the field of human embryonic stem cell research, and offer an opportunity for investigators to carry out studies that may yield preliminary data or proof-of-principle results that could then be extended to full scale investigations.

The SEED Grant applications will be reviewed by CIRM’s Grants Working Group later this month, with recommendations scheduled to be considered by the ICOC in February 2007. The ICOC may award up to $24 million for 30 SEED Grants at that time.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) announced that it has already received 70 applications for Comprehensive Research Grants, the second group of stem cell research grants it will award since passage of Proposition 71 in November 2004. The applications are from individual researchers at 23 non-profit institutions in California.

Will it be long before a market develops to license and commercialize the research discoveries found through these grants? I imagine researchers will be flocking to California, if not already, to take part in this cutting-edge research.

There are big implications for big pharma and biotech in California. These funds may be enough to start the next great boom for biotech and biomedical companies. The University of California, Davis will be a big recipient of some of the CIRM funding.

Techcoire recently held a BioSummit higlighting research in the area.

Is the region prepared for bio revolution? Discuss.