Winners Revealed for $30 Million in California Stem Cell Awards

The California stem cell agency today revealed the identities of the winners of $30 million in awards aimed at removing bottlenecks in stem cell research.

The 20 names were added to the news release posted yesterday afternoon on the agency’s Web site. All the recipients work at institutions that have representatives on the agency’s governing board. Those representatives are not allowed to vote on the applications from their institutions, but they set the rules for and the scope of the research that is being funded.

Today’s posting of the names is a departure from past practices. Previously the agency would release the names on the day when the agency board approved the grants. Yesterday, the agency moved quickly to publish the main body of the news release on the action, minus the names.

The list contains the number of each application, but without a link to the summary of reviewer comments on the proposals.  The reviewer comments cannot be found by searching on the application number on the CIRM Web site.

Instead, a search on application numbers on the CIRM Web site will turn up only an abstract and statement of public benefit prepared by the researcher.

The review summary, which contains more details and something of a critique, can only be found in a 162-page, omnibus document given to board members and posted on the meeting agenda. It encompasses all the application review summaries along with scores and staff comments.  That document, which is much more valuable to the public and the scientific community than the abstract and benefit statement, can be found here.  

(Editor's note: Following publication of this item, Kevin McCormack, senior director of communications for CIRM, sent the following concerning the statement that representatives of institutions receiving awards are not allowed to vote on applications from their institutions.

("That's not quite right. In fact, it's not right at all. Representatives of institutions are not allowed to vote on any applications at all, not just those that involve their own institutions. They can't vote on any funding or award.")

California Okays $30 Million in Awards to Help Remove Stem Cell Roadblocks

Directors of the California stem cell agency today approved $30 million to help eliminate bottlenecks in turning stem cell research into cures.

The action gave the go-ahead to awards that were backed by either its blue-ribbon reviewers from outside of California or the agency’s own staff, plus three additional proposals moved forward by the board.  The agency has already spent $52 million to develop stem cell research tools. Today's round was originally budgeted for $35 million.

After a brief discussion, the 29-member board approved, 9-2, an award to UC Davis researchers who had appealed rejection of a $1.8 million proposal by the staff of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the $3 billion agency is formally known.

The agency did not immediately release the names of the winners. It keeps the names of all applicants secret until after the board ratifies the actions of its reviewers, who make the de facto award decisions for the agency behind closed doors.  The agency is expected to issue a press release on the awards later today. (Here is the link to the press release. It does not include a list of recipients.)

The board did not vote on two applications on which appeals were filed involving material misstatement of facts. Those were deferred  until the March board meeting. The final four numbers of those applications are 7836 and 7678.

Here is a link to the document on this "tools and technology" round submitted to the board by its staff. Summaries of the reviews can be found with the document along with the scores on the winners.

California Stem Cell Appeal: $1.8 Million Needed for Removing Bone Replacement Bottleneck

A UC Davis researcher is making a strong pitch to the California stem cell agency to finance a $1.8 million effort to “resolve bottlenecks in engineering replacement bone and cartilage.”

J. Kent Leach, UC Davis photo

J. Kent Leach, an associate professor in the departments of biomedical engineering and orthopedic surgery, said his proposal addresses “a major hurdle in regenerative medicine of the musculoskeletal system (that) impairs the inherent personalized medicine component of stem cell-based methods.”

In a letter to the agency’s board for its meeting tomorrow, Leach said the research team involved is “arguably the most qualified team in the nation to conduct these studies.” 

Other scientists participating are Laura Marcu and Kyriacos Athanasiou.

Kyriacos Athanasiou
UC Davis photo

Reviewers for the $3 billion agency, who make the de facto decisions on awards, scored the application at 72 and did not approve it for funding. The agency’s staff also nixed the proposal, declaring,

“There is another application recommended for funding in Tier 1 that proposes to optimize and apply the same imaging technology platform to a different test system. In addition, the scientific leadership of the two applications is the same.”

Leach said,

“The co-PI (Dr. Marcu) of this proposal is also PI (principal investigator) on RT3-07879, which is focused on assessing stem cell repopulation and remodeling of engineered vascular tissue constructs. 

Laura Marcu, UC Davis photo

"However, the use of this technology for monitoring the maturation of engineered bone and cartilage, tissues composed of dense matrix reflective of the differentiation of contributing stem cell populations, is substantially different from cardiovascular applications. Of course, both applications involve instrumentation based on optical spectroscopy and ultrasound principles, but the implementation and subsequent commercial hurdles for this technology is very different.”

 (For the summary of reviewer and staff comments, see application RT3-07981 in this document.)

Leach noted that another competing application in the round received an identical 72 score and was approved by the agency’s staff.

The grant round was budgeted for as much as $35 million. Reviewers and CIRM staff recommended approval of awards totaling $29.2 million.

Scientists making appeals directly to the board have not been successful in the last 12 months or so. The board has been more reticent about overturning reviewer and staff recommendations since it changed review and appeal procedures in 2013.

California to Pump $35 Million into Removing Stem Cell Therapy Roadblocks

California is set to give away as much as $35 million later this month to create tools and technology to help researchers develop the stem cell therapies that were promised to voters 11 years ago.

The idea behind the awards is to eliminate bottlenecks that block commercialization of research. California’s $3 billion stem cell program was created by voters late in 2004 with the expectation that it would quickly lead to stem cell cures.  It has spent about $1.9 billion so far but no therapies have reached the marketplace.

The latest, $35 million round is budgeted for as many as 20 awards of up to $1.2 million each to be distributed over a period as long as three years.  The $1.2 million is for "direct" research costs. CIRM would also pay for "indirect" costs that raise the total substantially.

Applications were sought last year from both academics and businesses with possible collaboration involving out-of-state partners, including China, Australia, Germany and Brazil.  Non-California enterprises would not receive funding from the state agency.

Action on the applications is part of the agenda for the Jan. 29 meeting of the 29-member governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the formal name of the stem cell agency.  

The round is not part of the new fast-track program, CIRM 2.0, initiated by CIRM President Randy Mills. The “tools” effort contains different timetables, among other things. The work must begin within six months of approval of the awards, considerably longer than the 45 days specified under CIRM 2.0, which began just this month.  The old process also contained a pre-application review that has been eliminated.

The board is additionally expected to approve new rules for CIRM 2.0 awards, including loans to businesses.  Given that the deadline for applying for the first round of CIRM 2.0 is Jan. 31, potential applicants would be well-served to scrutinize the proposed new regulations. Interested parties can make comments or suggestions in advance of the board meeting and the related sessions of the board’s Science Subcommittee on Tuesday and the Intellectual Property (IP) Subcommittee on Jan. 26.  

The grant rules can be found on the Science panel agenda. The new loan rules have not yet been posted on the IP agenda. Comments can be sent by email to mbonneville@cirm.ca.gov or made at one of the public meeting sites. 

Public teleconference sites for the Science Subcommittee session Tuesday include San Francisco, Oakland, Irvine, Duarte, La Jolla and Sacramento. Addresses are on the agenda.  The only public site listed currently for the IP subcommittee is San Francisco.

The Jan. 29 full board meeting will be held in Burlingame but remote teleconference locations are also available where the public can participate. They currently include locations in Irvine and La Jolla, but that could change prior to the meeting.  Addresses are available on the agenda.