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‘Sun Never Sets on CIRM’ – California Agency Awards $69 Million to Researchers

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May 27th, 2012 3:59 pm


The California stem cell agency today
awarded $69 million in grants, including the first involving a collaboration with researchers in China, but none of the awards went to California
biotech businesses.
The awards were made in the agency's
third translational round, which funds projects that are in the
initial stage of identifying drugs or cell types that could become
drug therapies.
CIRM originally allocated $95 million
for the round, but CIRM spokesman Kevin McCormack said that grant
reviewers determined that no applications beyond $69 million were
worthy of funding.
The CIRM governing board overturned a negative
reviewer decision on one grant after the scientist – W. Douglas
Boyd of UC Davis -- filed an appeal. The appeals of two other
researchers, including one from a San Diego business, were not successful (see here
and here).
CIRM did not disclose the number of
applications from businesses. The agency has been sharply
criticized for failing to fund businesses in a substantial way.
The approved grants involve
collaboration with researchers in Australia and Germany as well as
China. The collaborations are based on agreements worked out earlier
by CIRM with overseas groups, which fund their own countries' researchers. No CIRM cash is involved, according to the agency.
CIRM President Alan Trounson, a native
of Australia and researcher there until joining the stem cell agency,
said in a press release,

"The sun now never sets on the
CIRM collaborative projects..."

The news release also said,

 "The
Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology has committed roughly
$850,000 in collaboration with a team at UCSF to study liver failure.
This is the stem cell agency’s first joint effort with scientists
in China, which is home to a fast-growing stem cell research
community."

The UCSF liver team is led by Holger
Willenbring, whose goal is "to develop a source of autologous
therapeutic cells for patients with liver disease who otherwise would
require a liver transplant," according to the CIRM review summary.
The agency did not spell out the details of how the collaboration
would work.
All of the winning applicants, with the
exception of a Salk researcher, work for institutions linked to at
least one of the 29-members of the CIRM governing board. CIRM
directors, however, are barred from voting or even discussing applications in which CIRM attorneys have determined there is a conflict
of interest.
You can find the names of all the successful applicants in the CIRM news release.    

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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