{"id":1063265,"date":"2012-03-25T15:53:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-25T15:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longevitymedicine.tv\/california-stem-cell-agency-pulls-19-million-grant\/"},"modified":"2024-08-17T20:28:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T00:28:15","slug":"california-stem-cell-agency-pulls-19-million-grant-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/stem-cell-therapy\/california-stem-cell-agency-pulls-19-million-grant-2.php","title":{"rendered":"California Stem Cell Agency Pulls $19 Million Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The California stem cell agency has terminated a $19 million grant to a UC San Francisco<\/b> researcher involved in the agency's ambitious attempts to push stem cell therapies into clinics. <\/p>

The agency said the research effort led by Mitchel Berger<\/b>, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at UCSF, \"did not meet a go\/no-go milestone\" stipulated in the grant. His research was funded in 2010 to treat brain tumors with genetically modified neural brain cells. No further explanation for the termination was provided by CIRM<\/b> in a report<\/a> prepared for tomorrow's meeting of the CIRM governing board. The agency estimated the cancellation would save $13 million.<\/p>

The California Stem Cell Report<\/b> has asked Berger and his co-PIs for comment on the CIRM action. The other researchers are Evan Snyder<\/b> of Sanford-Burnham<\/b> and Webster Cavanee<\/b> of the Ludwig Cancer Institute<\/b>. Their remarks will be carried verbatim when they are received. <\/p>

The CIRM action was disclosed in the progress report on the $230 million disease team effort launched by the agency in 2009. The amount climbed to more than $250 million with contributions from partnering countries. Three of the 14 funded applicants – Irv Weissman<\/b> and Gary Steinberg<\/b>, both of Stanford<\/b>, and Karen Aboody<\/b> of the City of Hope<\/b> – were approved only after they appealed to the CIRM board to overturn rejections by grant reviewers. (See  here<\/a> , here<\/a> and here<\/a> for their written appeals. See here<\/a> and here <\/a>for coverage of the 2009 board action.)<\/p>

One other disease team grant was modified to limit its scope and revise its funding. No savings were announced by CIRM. The PI on the $20 million project is Dennis Carson<\/b> of UC San Diego<\/b>. Co-PIs are Catriona Jamieson<\/b>, also of UC San Diego<\/b>, and John Dick<\/b> of the University Health Network<\/b> of Canada. The research is aimed at leukemia.<\/p>

The actions on the disease team grants were not entirely unexpected. From their inception, CIRM directors have been told not to expect all the grants to finish successfully. <\/p>

Ellen Feigal<\/b>, senior vice president for research and development at CIRM, prepared the 19-page update on the disease team efforts. The grants are aimed at generating an investigational new drug application with the FDA<\/b> within the four-year term of the grant.<\/p>

She said that the funding decisions were made following evaluation of the projects by panels of clinical development advisors. Their recommendations were then considered by CIRM staff. <\/p>

Feigal's report laid out accomplishments of the research so far and discussed changes in direction. <\/p>

She said two companies have been formed since the grants were awarded to commercialize the hoped-for products. She said that in June 2011 Aboody founded TheraBiologics Inc<\/b>., Newport Beach, Ca., of which she is chief scientific officer and director. Another company, Regenerative Patch Technologies<\/b>, Glendale, Ca., was created by the team working on an hESC treatment for age-related macular degeneration. That $16 million grant involves Mark Humayan<\/b> and David Hinton<\/b> of USC, Dennis Clegg <\/b>of UC Santa Barbara<\/b> and Peter Coffey<\/b>, formerly with University College, London<\/b>, but now at UC Santa Barbara. The effort has generated seven patent filings. <\/p>

The Feigal update also discussed the efforts of companies involved in other disease team grants. The lack of CIRM funding for biotech firms has been a bone of contention with industry and troublesome for some CIRM directors. <\/p>

CIRM indicated the projects involving the firms were moving on schedule with no major difficulties reported. The companies involved are ViaCyte<\/b> of San Diego, Calimmune<\/b> of Tucson, Az., and Sangamo Inc<\/b>. of Richmond, Ca.<\/p>

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Source:
http:\/\/californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com\/feeds\/posts\/default?alt=rss<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The California stem cell agency has terminated a $19 million grant to a UC San Francisco researcher involved in the agency's ambitious attempts to push stem cell therapies into clinics. The agency said the research effort led by Mitchel Berger, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1246878],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1063265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stem-cell-therapy","category-stem-cells"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1063265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1063265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1063265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1063265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1063265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}