Don't Miss Critical Information and News about California's $12 Billion Stem Cell Program

The California Stem Cell Report has moved to another platform, but you can still subscribe free to the latest news and information about the Golden State's $12 billion stem cell research program. 

For more than 16 years, the report has brought to its readers an independent perspective unfettered by government and industry ties. Read the California Stem Cell Report if you want to know what is going on at the state stem cell program, which operates with no legislative or gubernatorial oversight. 

The California Stem Cell Report is essential reading for policy makers, stem cell company executives, scientists and patient advocates. Subscribe now. 

CIRM Lays Out New Path: Funding More Buildings, More Research and Into New Territories (Personalized Medicine, Therapy Delivery)

California’s stem cell agency has for the first time laid out in some detail its view of the sweeping scope of its new charter -- approved by voters last fall and which directs the program into areas such as personalized medicine and therapy delivery over the next decade or so. 

The agency’s perspective will be discussed in public Thursday morning before its 35-member governing board. The new path is charted in the form of 17 pages of slides plus annotations on a 17,000-word ballot initiative, which is more than twice as long as the U.S. Constitution.

The documents were posted online by CIRM yesterday afternoon, two and a half days before this week’s meeting.... 

You can read the full item here on the new platform for the California Stem Cell Report, the only independent, news and information source devoted solely to the Golden State's stem cell research program, the first of its kind in state history. 

This blog's migration to a new platform is aimed at improving service to readers and helping to bring a new focus to our coverage, which began in January 2005 and which has carried in 5,000 items since then.

Plus and Minuses: The Proposition 14 "Christmas Tree" and its Implications

From the exploration of mental health to "aging as a pathology," Proposition 14 launched the California stem cell agency on a course that will take it far afield from its founding charter of 2004. 

Directors of the agency will receive a briefing Thursday on the details of the 17,000-word, "Christmas tree" ballot initiative. The California Stem Cell Report has prepared a deep look at many of the features of the measure, including how it could be altered if CIRM desires to take on that difficult task. Below is an excerpt from the full item, which can be found on the new platform for this blog.

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Proposition 14, last fall’s ballot measure to save California’s stem cell agency from financial extinction, contains much, much more than the $5.5 billion it sought from the state’s voters.

Added to the agency’s charter is research involving mental health, “therapy delivery,” personalized medicine and “aging as a pathology.“ That is not to mention a greater emphasis on supporting “vital research opportunities” that are not stem cell-related.

The measure enlarged the board from 29 to 35 members — seats not yet filled as of this writing. But even at 29, the board has been much criticized for its large size, which creates more possibilities for conflicts of interest, a long-standing issue for the agency.

Proposition 14 bans royalties that are generated by state-backed stem cell inventions from being used for such things as prisons and schools, isolating the funds from tinkering by lawmakers....

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The California Stem Cell Report is the only independent, news and information source devoted solely to the Golden State's stem cell research program, the first of its kind in state history. 

This blog's migration to a new platform is aimed at improving service to readers and helping to bring a new focus to our coverage, which began in January 2005 and which has carried in 5,000 items since then.

New Home for California Stem Cell Report -- Don't Miss an Item

The California Stem Cell Report is in the process of migrating to a different platform. To be sure that you have the latest news and information concerning the California stem cell agency, please go to this location. 

California Stem Cell Conflicts of Interest and Their Regulation Rise Next Week

Proposition 14 left the state stem cell agency with $5.5 billion plus a significant and wide range of new issues. One involves creation of “advisory task forces,” which were not formally enabled in the ballot initiative that created CIRM 16 years ago.  

Next Thursday the agency's governing board takes on conflict-of-interest rules for those new entities as its directors push into the new territory of Proposition 14. Conflicts, however, have been a bugaboo for the agency for years. 

Advisory/working groups to CIRM have played a significant role in the past and may play an even greater role under the agency’s new charter. They are likely to be the venue where major new issues are hashed over and policies developed that are adopted by the full board with little change.

Those policies are likely to have an impact on businesses developing stem cell therapies and their affordability and accessibility not to mention researchers.

Read all about it in an item posted today on a new platform for this blog, the California Stem Cell Report (CSCR), the only independent, news and information source devoted solely to the  Golden State's 16-year-old research program, the first of its kind in state history. 

This blog's migration to a new platform is aimed at improving service to readers and helping to bring a new focus to our coverage, which began in January 2005 and which has resulted in 5,000 items since then.