John M. Simpson, stem cell project director for the group, said,
"CIRM is jumping on the bandwagon claiming credit for contributions that were at best rather trivial."Simpson was commenting on the report below – "CIRM Exaggerates Role..."
He said,
"CIRM is too eager to claim immediate results. Certainly we’ll see great benefit as the result of stem cell research, but this political manipulation and hype does a tremendous disservice to all who believe in the value of this research."Simpson's news release continued:
"Stem cell agency officials repeatedly say, ‘It’s all about the science. If only that were true. More often than not — as in this case — it’s all about appearances, hype and claiming credit."
CIRM is just trying to demonstrate that progress is being made. Perhaps they overstated their role in this case. But the reality is that CIRM funding is what is driving anything related to human embryonic stem cell research--and that's the point. You should be looking at the advancements as a good thing partially enabled by CIRM rather than nitpicking and accusing them of hype.
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