San Jose Business Journal -- California will spend $270.9 million to help build 12 stem cell research facilities that could bring scientists closer to stem cell treatments, cures and tests for diseases ranging from diabetes to Alzheimer’s.
The board that oversees the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine -- the stem cell agency supported by a $3 billion voter-approved bond issue -- voted May 7 to award grants for the projects.
That cash will combine with institutional contributions and philanthropy to construct $832 million in stem cell research facilities, including $43.6 million for the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and $7.2 million for a research facility at UC Santa Cruz.
In all, it is the largest-ever outlay for the construction of medical research facilities.
The decision, topping a process with its roots in President Bush’s restrictions on federal stem cell research in August 2001, means that scientists will begin moving into labs within 30 months.
More importantly, stem cell research advocates say, the decision will attract 1400 stem cell researchers to California and move science closer to discovering more about cancers, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and a plethora of other medical conditions, because the facilities will be unencumbered by the Bush administration restrictions.
Bob Klein, chairman of CIRM’s governing board, said the 12 projects create a “portfolio of excellence” that is a substitute for lack of federal research funds. “This is the place it’s going to happen,” Klein said.
CIRM President Alan Trounson said the facilities pulled together disparate resources and scientists to produce “a natural cauldron of excitement.”
Stem cell research itself remains wrapped in controversy, mainly on religious grounds. Many opponents of embryonic stem cell research argue that it destroys life.
CIRM also has faced opposition from taxpayer advocates that have bird-dogged the agency’s policies and spending.
Those groups allied in court to delay the state bond sale.
Even the final awards came down to the wire. CIRM had $262 million earmarked for large facilities grants, and in the end moved $9 million to an equipment fund and Klein over the past month negotiated a voluntary 9 percent grant award discount with eight institutions that agreed to take their CIRM awards early.
That shed $17.6 million from CIRM’s outlay, allowing the stem cell agency to hit a $262 million target.
CIRM is capped in large facilities funding to the $262 million figure. But governing board members also have said they don’t want to spend more on bricks and mortar at the expense of research projects.
CIRM considered equally cutting all the projects, but some oversight board members argued that would hurt smaller institutions.
The eight institutions that took the discount were Stanford, UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and USC.
That will put some pressure on those institutions to raise more donations for their projects; on the other hand, CIRM won’t cut their funds further and receiving the CIRM cash early allows them to collect interest on that money and win construction savings.
“The goal was to fund as much as possible that met the scientific threshhold of quality,” said CIRM governing board member David Serrano Sewell of San Francisco.
Seventeen requests were submitted for CIRM’s pot of money -- the largest group of grants awarded by the agency -- and working groups of CIRM’s oversight board had already slimmed those to 12 requests for $336.2 million.
Ron Leuty is a reporter for the San Francisco Business Times, an affiliated publication.
