None of the rejected California universities seeking
multimillion dollar grants to join the Golden State’s new, ambitious network of
Alpha Stem Cell Clinics has yet filed an appeal of the decisions, the state
stem cell agency said today.
That word comes from Don Gibbons, a spokesman for the $3
billion enterprise. In response to a query from the California Stem Cell
Report, he said, however, the deadline for appeals is Friday.
If appeals are filed as expected, they will handled behind
closed doors by the agency’s staff. Under state law, the applicants can also
appear publicly before the agency’s governing board on Oct. 23 in Los Angeles
to make their case. The board, however, has not responded favorably to most
such pitches in the last year or so.
The Oct. 23 meeting will be the first public vetting of the
proposals, which are outlined briefly in review summaries. The summaries were
prepared by the agency's staff following closed-door meetings in which out-of-state
scientific reviewers voted the applications up or down. The board almost never
rejects a positive decision by its reviewers. Occasionally, it will approve an
application that is rejected by reviewers.
Three applications survived the private review and total
about $33.6 million. A fourth is on the fence for $11 million more. The agency
refuses most of the time to disclose the names of applicants. But based on the
review summaries and other information, the City of Hope, UC San Diego and UCLA
appear to be the top-ranked
applications.
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