Directors of the California stem cell
agency this week are expected to hand out $37 million to businesses
and scientists for projects involving human embryonic stem
cells(hESC), spinal injury and urinary incontinence.
About $20 million will go to
enterprises involved in later stage research. A $14.3 million award
is expected to go to Asterias Therapeutics of Menlo Park, Ca., which
has purchased the stem cell program that originated with Geron Corp.
Asterias plans to move forward with the hESC clinical trial that
Geron began amid much ballyhoo. However, Geron abandoned the effort
in 2011 for financial reasons. (See here and here.)
A $5.6 million award is expected to go
a previous but unidentified grant recipient for work involving
HIV/AIDS. (Late today, an anonymous reader said in a comment at the end of this item that the award is for Sangamo Biosciences in Richmond, Ca.)
At their meeting Thursday in San Diego, directors of the agency are also
expected to approve $16.2 million to help recruit three out-of-state
scientists. The academic recruitment program was created to help
California lure star scientists to the Golden State. The awards range
from $6.4 million to $4.6 million. Two additional applicants were
classified as by reviewers as additional possibilities for funding
depending on the druthers of the board. The names of the applicants
are being withheld by the
agency
The recruitment program was originally
budgeted some years ago for $44 million. Twenty-three million dollars was added in
2013. Prior to this week, the awards helped to finance the recruitment of seven scientists.
Information about the $900,000 urinary
incontinence award can be found here.
I think that we can safely say that the $5.6M for ZFN treating HIV is a grant to Sangamo.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up on the recipient of the $5.6 million.
ReplyDelete