Subscribe Today to the Leading Source of Information on a $12 Billion Source of Stem Cell Research Funding

 It's time to subscribe -- free! -- to the California Stem Cell Report, which has moved to a new platform. 

Don't miss news and information concerning critical developments at the $12 billion California stem cell agency. It is the leading, independent and reliable source for all that happens at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). 

With more than 3 million page views and more than 5,000 items during the last 16 years, the Report's readers range from researchers throughout California to across the nation. Not to mention policymakers and entrepreneurs in the burgeoning stem cell field. "Indispensable" is how the Los Angeles Times described the California Stem Cell Report.

You can subscribe on the blog's new platform while reading the latest CIRM news. Please do it today. Here are recent links and excerpts that will take you to the location where you can subscribe with just one click.  

Telling the California Stem Cell Story: A Matter of Billions of Dollars

Building a Base of Voter Support

David Jensen 23 hr ago Edit post Exclude from Top

Can the stork be relied on to bring stem cell cash?

The respected California news service Capitol Weekly this week brought the exploits of the state’s $12 billion stem cell agency to a much wider audience than normal -- one that includes policymakers, lobbyists, lawmakers and even some information-hungry folks in the general public. 

The case in point involves the $17 million provided by the stem cell agency to help finance the world’s first clinical trial to treat spina bifida in the womb. ....

Bulldogs and Babies: World's First Trial to Treat Spina Bifida in the Womb

UC Davis Research Began More than 10 Years Ago

David Jensen Mar 10 Edit post Exclude from Top

Bulldog pups were tested earlier in the spina bifida research and came out lively. UCD video

Backed by $17 million in cash from California’s stem cell agency, researchers at UC Davis this month are launching “the world’s first clinical trial using stem cells to treat spina bifida before the child is born.”...

 

California Stem Cell Flashback: When CIRM Was Homeless and Without an HQ

CIRM is now based in Oakland. Here is what it looked like prior to a CIRM board
 meeting in 2019. The view from the 16th floor includes the San Francisco Bay. 
Photo: California Stem Cell Report

Editor’s note: Sixteen years ago California’s stem cell program was basically homeless. It had barely come into being. It had no way to pay its bills or even employees. This link will take you to an item from Jan. 25, 2005, on the California Stem Cell Report that captures a slice of what it was like back then.  It also comments on today's situation at the agency's headquarters in Oakland, where space needs appear to be changing. 

Speaking of changes, the California Stem Cell Report has moved to a new platform. Be sure to subscribe free on the new site so that you don't miss out on information that goes to researchers and policy makers throughout the state. 

$165 Million for Stem Cell Education and Training in California

California's ambitious stem cell agency is in the midst of determining how it is going to spend $5.5 billion over the next decade or so. Its decisions are likely to affect millions of patients desperate for therapies and cures for afflictions ranging from cancer to diabetes. That is not to mention the agency's impact on health care policy and the thousands of scientists, technicians and others in their California laboratories. 

The go-to source for independent information about the programs of the stem cell agency is this blog, which has readers in every major stem cell research organization in the Golden State, the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. 

Over the last 16 years, the California Stem Cell Report has brought its readers exclusive information and news that can be found nowhere else. It has chronicled CIRM's accomplishments and its missteps over the years. And it is essential reading as CIRM wades into gene therapy, affordability efforts, personalized medicine and much more.  

Here are links and excerpts from this week's California Stem Cell Report, which has moved to a new platform as it chronicles the latest chapters in the life of the agency known officially as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Subscribe to the "new"  version of this blog through the "subscribe" buttons that can be found on its new platform at Substack. Three-million "views" of the site can't be wrong.

California Approves $165 Million for Stem Cell Training and Education

Relaunches Touted Programs at Academic Institutions

California’s stem cell agency today pumped an additional $165 million into its efforts to beef up the Golden State’s stem cell workforce, but not without a rumpus involving the actual cost of each additional worker, who range from technicians to physicians.  

The agency and many of its 35-board members have touted the programs, which have been underway for a number of years. But earlier versions of the program, as well as the latest proposal, have not included a price tag for each of what the agency calls “ready-to-start” professionals. 

That led to a contentious discussion among governing board members during which a variety of high-level figures surfaced. One calculation by a board member generated a cost of $1 million per person per year (video at end of this item).

"Hotel California" for Golden State Stem Cell Research? Plus the Bad Tidings on a $16 Million Clinical Trial Investment

Here are links and excerpts from items this morning on the California Stem Cell Report, which has moved to a new platform. Don't miss the exclusive and news about California's $12 billion stem cell/gene therapy program, including information that can be found nowhere else. Subscribe to the "semi-new"  version of this blog through the "subscribe" buttons that can be found on the new site. Three-million "views" of the site can't be wrong. 

 CIRM 'Hotel California' for Stem Cell Research? But Bad News in a California Stem Cell Trial

Stem cell researchers yesterday discussed a possible facility in California to aid in stem cell research that was dubbed a stem-cell Hotel California after the famed Baja retreat.

California’s rejuvenated stem cell program yesterday received bad news about a $16 million clinical trial investment but also heard glowing praise from stem cell researchers who suggested ways to spend $5.5 billion more. 

It all happened during a nearly five-hour session Monday morning devoted to crafting a new, five-year strategic plan for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), as the agency is formally known. The meeting came in the wake of voter passage last fall of Proposition 14, which saved the agency from death by a lack of dollars.....  

Text of Statement by Amander Clark of UCLA on Future Direction of California's Stem Cell Program

Clark's Talk was Aimed at Needs in Basic Research

Looking for Work? California's Stem Cell Agency Needs 11 Good People

California’s ambitious stem cell research agency is now hiring as part of its renewed search for treatments and therapies, fueled by a fresh infusion of $5.5 billion courtesy of the people of the Golden State.

You can read all about the new jobs on the California Stem Cell Report's new platform. The article includes links to job descriptions, salaries and much more. Here is an excerpt:

“'Our team of highly trained and experienced professionals,' the agency says, 'actively partners with both academia and industry in a hands-on, entrepreneurial environment to fast-track the development of today’s most promising stem cell and regenerative medicine technologies.'

"The Oakland, Ca.-based agency is officially known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). It says it 'is the world’s largest institution dedicated to helping people by bringing the promise of regenerative medicine closer to reality.'

"At last report, the 16-year-old agency had 32 employees, down from a peak of more than 60 a few years back. But it has new and expanded responsibilities under Proposition 14....."