Stem Cell Institute Awards 1st Grants

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Stem Cell Institute Awards 1st Grants

Roughly $12.1million from private sources will jump-start research as

the organization's ability to issue bonds is determined in court.

By Lee Romney, Times Staff Writer

April 11, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-

stemcell11apr11,1,6008703.story

SAN FRANCISCO — After 16 months of litigation-induced delay and

uncertainty, California's $3-billion voter-approved stem cell

institute has cut its first checks to research institutions across

the state, officials announced Monday.

On its face, the news could seem anticlimactic: About $12.1 million

in training grants awarded by the California Institute for

Regenerative Medicine's oversight board last fall have at last been

funded.

But the money flowed only after a frenzied effort by Klein —

the institute's board chairman and main proponent of the 2004 ballot

initiative that created the novel experiment — to woo commitments

from foundations and trusts that might not be repaid.

" We are now officially a grant-making entity, " Klein said Monday at

the stem cell institute's headquarters in San Francisco, flanked by

research scientists, patient advocates and patients who held canes or

sat in wheelchairs.

California voters approved the publicly funded institute in November

2004 as a response to federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell

research, dedicating $3 billion to the nascent science over the

course of a decade.

But litigation by taxpayer groups and religious organizations opposed

to the use of discarded embryos in some of the research has paralyzed

the issuance of state bonds meant to fund the venture.

Instead, the state for the first time in its history last week issued

so-called bond anticipation notes, purchased by six philanthropic

entities to help the institute fulfill its mission while litigation

is pending.

If the institute prevails, the note purchasers will be repaid from

general obligation bonds the state will issue.

A decision is expected soon from the Alameda County Superior Court

judge who tried the consolidated cases earlier this year. Legal

analysts have predicted that the initiative will survive the

challenge. But opponents have vowed to appeal to the state Supreme

Court, tying up funding until at least spring 2007.

The roughly $12.1 million in checks cut by the state last week will

finance pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and clinical fellowships and

training courses at 16 institutions, grooming a new crop of

scientists in the field of umbilical cord blood, embryonic and adult

stem cell research.

Raising the money to fund the grants was " urgent, " Klein said,

because many recipient institutions had already crafted stem cell

training programs and recruited scientists in anticipation of the

grants.

Officials with the UCLA Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine

and USC's Keck School of Medicine — among the recipients — applauded

the timing of the funds. In a statement, Keck Dean E.

called it " so important … as our newly recruited stem cell program

director arrives to begin building a comprehensive and

interdisciplinary center for stem cell and regenerative medicine. "

Klein has already secured an additional $32 million in commitments

for more bond anticipation notes, which will likely be issued in

increments over the coming months for research grants.

Simpson of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights,

which has pressed for transparency in the grant-making process,

said " everybody's glad that they're doing some funding. " But he

called on the institute to release the names of 10 institutions who

were denied grants, to ensure that not only applicants with

representation on the oversight board are receiving funding.