The awards went for research ranging from creation of a universal blood supply with human stem cells to mitigating Alzheimer's disease, which has seen an increase of 55 percent in its death rate from 1999 to 2014, according to results of a new study released yesterday
The agency said in a press release that the "Inception" program "provides seed funding for great ideas that have the potential to impact human stem cell research, but need some initial support. It’s hoped this will enable the researchers to test their ideas, and give them the data they need to compete for more substantial funding."
Jonathan Thomas, chairman of the agency's governing board, said,
"This is a high risk, high reward program. We feel that a small investment now could produce enormous benefits later.”The funding is small indeed. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), as the agency is formally known, finances some clinical trials at $20 million a crack. The largest award in the "great ideas" program was $265,500.
The blood supply award was a reminder of another program that the agency used to entice star researchers to California. The blood grant went to Tannishtha Reya of UC San Diego. She came to California with her spouse, Robert Wechsler-Reya. He was lured by CIRM in 2010 with $5 million in funding to work at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla.. He has not received any further funding from the agency. This is the first CIRM award for Reya.
Another round of the Inception program is scheduled to open up in January 2018. Here is a link to the most recent request for applications.
Here is a list of the winners with their application numbers. The summaries of reviewer comments on each application and their scores can be found here. All of the institutions have ties to CIRM board members, who are not permitted to vote on applications involving their institutions. However, they can vote on creation of the research grant programs, establishment of their scope and rules.
| DISC1-10074 | Reprogramming human stem cells for blood cell generation | T. Reya – U.C. San Diego | $232,200 |
| DISC1-10036 | Prodrug innovation to target muscle stem cells and enhance muscle regeneration | H. Blau – Stanford University | $235,834 |
| DISC1-10079 | An exosome-based translational strategy to mitigate Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology | J. Baulch – U.C. Irvine | $179,911 |
| DISC1-09912 | A novel tissue engineering technique to repair degenerated retina | B. Thomas – University of Southern California | $215,133 |
| DISC1-09999 | Generation of expandable, self-renewing muscle stem cells for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy | A. Sacco – Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute Letter to board |
$265,500 |
| DISC1-09984 | Hypo-immunogenic cardiac patches for myocardial regeneration | S. Schrepfer – U.C. San Francisco Letter to board |
$238,500 |
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