CIRM Provides Public With More Info on Next Week's Important Directors' Meeting

To its credit, the $3 billion California stem cell agency today pumped a goodly dollop of information onto its web site dealing with the complex and costly matters that its 29 directors will vote on next week.

Before today's workday began and with only five business days remaining before its board meeting, the agency had provided little information via the meeting agenda for next Wednesday and Thursday in San Diego.

But by 5 p.m. today, CIRM offered to the California public and the stem cell research community links to information on five out of 24 items, including the selection of the new chair and the latest version of its reorganization plan.

Other background material now available includes:

• A $47 million extension of training grants to possibly as many as 17 institutions, all of which currently have grants. Most of the recipients have representatives on the board although they are barred from voting on grants to their institutions.
• An $882,974 increase in a grant to Henry Klassen of UC Irvine because of a "clerical error."
• Reappointment of a number of scientists to the grant review panel.

Still missing is information on the important, new grant review procedures for the big-ticket clinical trials and disease team rounds.

At this point, the information dealing with selection of the new chair appears to be unchanged from that which could be found earlier elsewhere on the CIRM website. It also appears that no changes were made earlier this week by the directors' Governance Subcommittee in the reorganization plan.

The agenda says that teleconference locations are available to the public in Pleasanton and at UCLA. Persons wanting to utilize the location at UCLA will need to call CIRM for more details because the agenda information is not specific.

The agenda also has instructions for listening to the meetings via the Internet.