Yes or No on More Money for California's Stem Cell Program? Your Chance to Vote Today

It's time to vote -- sort of -- on whether to kick in $5 billion more for California's $3 billion stem cell research program.

Recent results from poll on CIRM

I say "sort of" because the voting consists of a poll being conducted by UC Davis researcher Paul
Knoepfler on his blog, The Niche. Initial results are already in. Sixty-three percent of those responding say they would definitely vote for a ballot measure to "refund" the agency.  (That figure jumped to more than 67 percent by Sept. 1,  three days after this item appeared. You can vote by clicking on this link.)

The poll, of course, is non-scientific, and the readers of Knoepfler's blog are hardly representative of the state's voter profile. Presumably those who seek out his blog are more informed about and more interested in the California stem cell agency than the average California voter . Nonetheless, it is an interesting exercise.

The question posed by Knoepfler's poll is not trivial. The agency, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), expects to run out of cash for new awards at the end of next year. It hopes voters will approve a proposed ballot measure in November 2020, giving it another $5 billion.

If you would like to know more about the case to be made for the agency, search this blog (the California Stem Cell Report) using the term "assembly biotech hearing."  That will take you to seven brief brief articles related to a legislative informational hearing on the work of the agency over the last 13 years.