August 2010 Digest
CIRM August Digest
On August 18th, the CIRM Governing Board approved the concept for up to $243 million in funding for the CIRM Disease Team Awards II. This grant will be the second in a recurring round of funding to support multidisciplinary research teams working toward filing a FDA request to begin stem cell-based clinical trials.
New Website Features
CIRM expanded the search criteria of its online list of funded grants. In addition to sorting by instition or grant type, the list is now sortable by disease type, stem cell type, and international collaborator.
The Promise on Hold: Impact of the NIH Funding Freeze
In response to the decision by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to freeze federal funding of all human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research, CIRM released a survey of CIRM grantees which found the new hESC funding freeze could slow California stem cell research and cut California jobs.
Research Leadership Award
Robert Wechsler-Reya, Ph.D. became first CIRM Research Leadership Award recipient by accepting a position as professor and director of the Tumor Development Program at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. The CIRM Governing Board approved the $5.9 million award in April, 2010 to be used as part of a package to recruit Weschler-Reya from Duke University to Sanford-Burnham.
New Funding Opportunity
In August, CIRM released two new Request for Applications (RFAs). The Basic Biology III Awards will fund research grants to investigate basic mechanisms underlying stem cell biology. The Targeted Clinical Development Awards will support the conduct of early clinical trials to facilitate clinical development of novel cell therapies derived from pluripotent stem cells.
New Workshop Report
A new report is available from the stem cell banking workshop held May 26, 2010.
