Free Republic

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s controversial, $3 billion stem-cell research agency, has yet to follow recommendations from a December report by the Institute of Medicine, a division of the National Academy of Sciences. The report, which urged the agency to overhaul its board of directors, did not fully convey the magnitude of CIRM’s failure—but it did confirm that CIRM might be better described as Conflict of Interest Research Money. Almost all members of the CIRM board, investigators noted, “are interested parties with a personal or financial stake in the allocation of CIRM fundings.” In fact, CIRM directed...

California's $3 billion stem cell agency, now more than 7 years old, has joined research partnerships with science and health agencies in eight foreign countries, the San Francisco institute announced. The agreements call for collaboration in efforts aimed at speeding stem cell research from the laboratory to the hospital, where researchers hope that basic human cells will be programmed to treat scores of human degenerative diseases. Research partnerships between American and foreign stem cell scientists are encouraged, but the California institute's funds would only be spent within the state, institute officials said. Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for...

Charges of an ethics lapse by a stem cell scientist seeking a California research grant have been resolved with a "warning letter" from the state's Fair Political Practices Commission. The controversy arose more than a year ago when Dr. John Reed, chief executive officer of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla (San Diego County), wrote a letter to the chief scientist of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine urging the agency to reverse its rejection of a $630,000 grant to one of the institute's scientists. Reed is a member of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, the state-sponsored...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has expressed “deep concern” about the state stem cell institute's plans to set the salaries for the chairman and vice chairman of its board, two positions for which no one has accepted pay in three years. With the state facing a possible $28 billion deficit, Schwarzenegger sent a letter Thursday to the stem cell institute's board urging it “to ensure that compensation for these positions is offered only if and to the extent absolutely necessary to implement its mission.” Setting a salary for the chairman of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is on the agenda for...

The governing board of California's stem cell agency awarded a total of $59 million Wednesday to support the budgets of 23 young scientists and physicians throughout the state who have proposed new stem cell research projects. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, created with a $3 billion bond issue approved by voters in 2004, announced the five-year grants, bringing the total awarded by the Institute to more than $614 million. More than a third has gone to individuals and teams of scientists at 27 California universities and research institutes, ... The institute is governed by the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee,...

California's stem cell institute has granted nearly $271 million to 12 universities and research centers to build new research laboratories. In 2004, Californians approved Proposition 71, a measure that created the California Institute for Regernerative Medicine, a $3 billion stem cell research agency. The institute says the new labs are needed to house the glut of researchers who flocked to the state to study stem cells. The largest grant announced Wednesday for a single campus will be $43.6 million for Stanford University. Nearly $137 million in funding will be divided between eight University of California campuses, with UC San Francisco...

California Controller John Chiang on Tuesday joined a consumer group in requesting an investigation of a board member of the state's $3 billion stem-cell institute and said he will audit the institute to ensure it is spending its money appropriately. Chiang said he has asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate John Reed, chief executive of the Burnham Institute of La Jolla and a board member with the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. A similar complaint was lodged against Reed last week by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. "I want a full review," Chiang said during a...

A prominent member of the governing board for California's stem cell agency may have violated state conflict-of-interest rules last summer when he tried to reverse a decision rejecting a grant proposal by a scientist who works for him at the Burnham Institute of Medical Research in La Jolla (San Diego County). The miscue has prompted calls for Burnham Institute chief executive Dr. John Reed to resign from the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, the board that governs the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. "If indeed Dr. Reed has violated the law, then I think he ought to consider resigning," said Jeff...

Former "Entertainment Tonight" host Leeza Gibbons has a new role, this one thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Wednesday, the governor announced her appointment to a board that oversees California's stem cell agency. Gibbons, whose mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, will fill the Alzheimer's advocate seat on the 29-member Independent Citizens Oversight Committee. "Leeza's personal experience as a caregiver and advocate makes her uniquely qualified for this position," Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Gena Grebitus said in an e-mailed statement. In 2002, Gibbons and her family founded the nonprofit Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation after her mother was diagnosed. She spent a decade...

California's stem cell agency announced Friday that it will hand out about $75 million in research grants to a dozen universities and nonprofit laboratories, only a month after doling out $45 million for studies. The grants far exceed the federal government's annual outlay. "As of today, California is the largest and most stable source of funding for human embryonic stem cell research in the world," said Robert N. Klein, chairman of the oversight committee that governs the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Some of the money will go to researchers looking for ways to fight Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's...

State auditors Tuesday criticized California's $3 billion stem-cell institute for lax travel and entertainment rules that let its officials sometimes get chauffeured rental cars, pricey meals and first-class air fare. The report by California State Auditor Elaine Howle also faulted the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for using questionable data in justifying its salaries, which in some cases seemed excessive to the auditors. In addition, the report said, the institute offered vague reasoning for its policies governing how much revenue and other benefits the state should receive from those who develop products from the institute's stem-cell grants. Moreover, the report...

A state appeals court upheld California's $3 billion stem cell agency Monday against attacks by anti-abortion and tax advocates who claimed the agency's managers had conflicts of interest. The 1st District Court of Appeal upheld a decision by a lower court judge who last year ruled in favor of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was created when Proposition 71 was passed by 59 percent of the electorate in 2004. The California Family Bioethics Council argued that the stem cell agency is rife with conflicts of interest, saying officials from three university systems who sit on the board overseeing...

California's stem cell agency on Friday doled out nearly $45 million in research grants to about 20 state universities and nonprofit research laboratories, far exceeding the federal government's annual outlays for the controversial work. In issuing the first significant research grants in its two-year history, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine became the biggest financial backer of human embryonic stem cell research. Two lawsuits challenging the state agency's constitutionality have prevented it from borrowing $3 billion from Wall Street bond markets. The first research grants came from a $150 million loan from the state and another $31 million in loans...

SAN DIEGO – The First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco announced Thursday that it would hear oral arguments Feb. 14 in the case challenging the constitutionality of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, known as Proposition 71. Under the California Constitution, the Appeals Court must render a decision in the case within 90 days of the hearing, absent additional briefings required by the court. The plaintiffs in the case – People's Advocate and the National Tax Limitation Foundation (represented by the Life Legal Defense Foundation), and the California Family Bioethics Council – are appealing an April...

IRVINE -- The president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine resigned his post today, citing "almost entirely personal reasons" for leaving the controversial $3-billion stem-cell research venture created in 2004 by the passage of Proposition 71. Zach W. Hall, at a meeting at UC-Irvine of the agency's governing board, noted that he had recently turned 69. "I find myself looking ahead," he said. Hall and his wife, a recently retired musician, own a home in Wyoming. "We're looking forward to reinventing ourselves," he said. Hall said the institute was in good shape, and that it has $181 million in...

The meeting was almost over when Roman Reed steered his wheelchair to the microphone. On the table before him sat a 149-page book of budget charts and timetables, the first concrete outline of what California's voter-approved stem cell institute plans to accomplish in its 10-year lifespan. "I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart," Reed said to the institute's staff and 29-member oversight board in October. "I promised my son that one day I would be able to walk, stand next to him and go hold my wife's hand. And seeing this road map to cures, I...

SAN FRANCISCO California voters, wooed by an aggressive, multimillion dollar campaign that promised cures to myriad diseases, overwhelmingly approved the nation's most ambitious stem cell research center two years ago. Now, $181 million is set to flow to cash-starved scientists struggling in a field financially and politically hamstrung by Bush administration opposition and lawsuits filed by conservative organizations against the center. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine managed to push out $14 million in "training grants" for young researchers last year, but much of the money it doles out in 2007 will finally go to senior scientists eager to push...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California officials approved on Monday a $150 million loan offered by the state to fund its stem-cell research institute in San Francisco. In addition to the loan, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has sold $31 million worth of bond anticipation notes to raise money for research into medical applications of stem-cell technology. Many scientists believe stem cells, either adult cells or ones from embryos, may be used to find treatments and cures for serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Voters approved the creation of the institute by passing a statewide measure in 2004 that...

A highly publicized $150 million state loan that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised California's cash-strapped stem cell agency in July has yet to materialize, a delay apparently caused by red tape and election year politics. Schwarzenegger's announcement on July 21 that "they need the money now" came the day after President Bush vetoed legislation that would have expanded federal funding of stem cell research, which many political conservatives oppose because days-old embryos are destroyed. At an emotional August meeting of the committee that manages the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, members praised Schwarzenegger for his political courage and were told by...

To the dismay of some advocates for the disabled and sick, a draft report issued today by California's $3 billion stem-cell institute says the agency is unlikely to develop cures for diseases or other ailments any time soon. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's proposed strategic plan, written by a group that included two Nobel scientists, methodically sets out a detailed blueprint for eventually turning stem cells into treatments for a variety of health problems. But the plan -- which must be approved by the institute's board -- cautions that stem cell science remains in its infancy and that much...