CIRM Awards $67 Million to Move Basic Research Toward the Clinic
Los Angeles, Calif., April 29, 2009 – The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell agency, will begin funding work that translates basic research into clinical cures. At a meeting of the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee, the 29-member Governing Board approved $67.7 million to fund 15 grants focused on moving basic research toward patients.
The 15 Early Translational grants approved by the board will go to 13 not-for-profit and two for-profit organizations. These grants are intended to either lead to a drug candidate for an unmet medical need or address a bottleneck in the development of new therapies. The board chose to hold decision on 12 grants that had been recommended for funding only if funds allow. They will consider those grants at the June meeting.
“With these Early Translational grants CIRM has taken the first step in funding translational research that will be critical for the development of future therapies,” said Alan Trounson, CIRM president. “These grants are an important part of CIRM’s strategy to fund the best basic research and then bring the results of that work to patients.”
At the previous two meetings, board members had been hesitant to commit funding for new awards due to uncertainty regarding bond sales, which CIRM relies on for funds. After a successful recent bond sale, the state allocated CIRM $275 million in new funding. Additional bond funds earmarked for CIRM were used to repay a prior state loan.
Other ICOC Business
The board endorsed a process for responding to the draft NIH stem cell research guidelines that were released April 17. A sub-committee will meet May 7 to draft formal CIRM comments on those draft regulations. A follow-up ICOC meeting tentatively scheduled for May 12 will review and finalize that response.
In other business, the board chose to cosponsor the 2010 meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research to be held in San Francisco. CIRM will contribute $200,000 to the cost of the meeting. The board also approved a procedure and committee structure for evaluating the performance of the president, chair, and vice-chairs.
Early Translational Awards
| Application Number | Institution | PI Name |
Total Budget |
| TR1-01215 | Novocell, Inc. | Justine Cunningham | $5,405,397 |
| TR1-01216 | Scripps Health | Darryl D’Lima | $3,118,431 |
| TR1-01219 | Scripps Research Institute | Martin Friedlander | $5,945,738 |
| TR1-01227 | The J. David Gladstone Institutes | Warner Greene | $1,327,973 |
| TR1-01245 | University of California, Irvine | Frank LaFerla | $3,599,997 |
| TR1-01246 | The Parkinson’s Institute | William Langston | $3,701,766 |
| TR1-01249 | Stanford University | Michael Longaker | $5,767,050 |
| TR1-01250 | Scripps Research Institute | Jeanne Loring | $6,292,290 |
| TR1-01257 | University of California, Davis | Jan Nolta | $2,753,559 |
| TR1-01267 | Burnham Institute for Medical Research | Evan Snyder | $3,562,824 |
| TR1-01269 | University of California, Davis | Alice Tarantal | $4,214,592 |
| TR1-01272 | University of California, Los Angeles | Gabriel Travis | $5,503,069 |
| TR1-01273 | The Salk Institute for Biological Studies | Inder Verma | $6,649,347 |
| TR1-01276 | BioTime, Inc. | Michael West | $4,721,706 |
| TR1-01277 | University of California, San Diego | Yang Xu | $5,165,028 |
| Total |
$67,728,767 | ||
All Grants To-Date
| Institution | Research Grants | Facilities Grants | Total Grants | Funds (Requested & Awarded) |
| Stanford University | 34 | 2 | 36 | $107,012,072 |
| University of California, San Francisco | 27 | 2 | 29 | $83,808,866 |
| University of California, Los Angeles | 23 | 2 | 25 | $62,577,253 |
| University of California, Irvine | 20 | 2 | 22 | $59,757,564 |
| University of Southern California | 13 | 2 | 15 | $49,418,708 |
| University of California, Davis | 12 | 2 | 14 | $48,035,430 |
| Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine | 1 | 0 | 1 | $43,000,000 |
| University of California, San Diego | 21 | 1 | 22 | $42,829,747 |
| University of California, Berkeley | 8 | 2 | 10 | $34,626,605 |
| Scripps Research Institute | 10 | 1 | 11 | $27,560,249 |
| Buck Institute for Age Research | 2 | 2 | 4 | $25,429,364 |
| The Salk Institute for Biological Studies | 11 | 1 | 12 | $24,193,690 |
| Burnham Institute for Medical Research | 14 | 1 | 15 | $23,134,219 |
| The J. David Gladstone Institutes | 12 | 1 | 13 | $22,633,003 |
| University of California, Santa Cruz | 7 | 2 | 9 | $19,383,633 |
| Childrens Hospital Los Angeles | 6 | 1 | 7 | $14,219,310 |
| University of California, Merced | 4 | 1 | 5 | $8,494,301 |
| University of California, Santa Barbara | 3 | 2 | 5 | $8,490,842 |
| Novocell, Inc. | 3 | 3 | $6,281,419 | |
| University of California, Riverside | 3 | 1 | 4 | $6,055,762 |
| BioTime, Inc. | 1 | 1 | $4,721,706 | |
| City of Hope National Medical Center | 5 | 5 | $4,131,703 | |
| The Parkinson’s Institute | 1 | 1 | $3,701,766 | |
| San Diego State University | 2 | 2 | $3,441,860 | |
| Scripps Health | 1 | 1 | $3,118,431 | |
| Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research | 3 | 1 | $2,473,053 | |
| California Institute of Technology | 1 | 1 | $2,071,823 | |
| San Jose State University | 1 | 1 | $1,733,760 | |
| California State University, Channel Islands | 1 | 1 | $1,733,406 | |
| California State University, San Marcos | 1 | 1 | $1,732,164 | |
| Pasadena City College | 1 | 1 | $1,727,991 | |
| San Francisco State University | 1 | 1 | $1,713,558 | |
| Humboldt State University | 1 | 1 | $1,616,363 | |
| California State Polytechnic University, Pomona | 1 | 1 | $1,436,797 | |
| California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo | 1 | 1 | $1,396,509 | |
| California State University, Long Beach | 1 | 1 | $1,337,700 | |
| California State University, Sacramento | 1 | 1 | $1,321,440 | |
| VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. | 1 | 1 | $971,558 | |
| Gamma Medica-Ideas, Inc. | 1 | 1 | $949,748 | |
| Vala Sciences, Inc. | 1 | 1 | $906,629 | |
| Invitrogen Corporation | 1 | 1 | $869,262 | |
| Fluidigm Corporation | 1 | 1 | $749,520 | |
| Human BioMolecular Research Institute | 1 | 1 | $714,654 | |
| Childrens Hospital Oakland Research Institute | 1 | 1 | $55,000 | |
| Cedars-Sinai Medical Center | 1 | 1 | $46,886 | |
| Grand Total | 265 | 29 | 294 | $761,615,324 |
Related Media:
Videos explaining stem cell research are available on the CIRM YouTube site: www.youtube.com/cirmtv.
Stem cell images are available at the CIRM Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/cirm. These are available for use with credit to the scientist listed in the caption.
About CIRM CIRM was established in November, 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act. The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions, was overwhelmingly approved by 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. To date, the CIRM governing board has approved 294 research and facility grants totaling more than $761 million, making CIRM the largest source of funding for human embryonic stem cell research in the world. For more information, please visit www.cirm.ca.gov.