Profession
California stem cell grants awarded, but legal battle could hold them up
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 3, 2005
The agency appointed to run California's $3 billion stem cell research initiative awarded its first grants, allocating $39 million over three years to 16 institutions to create a program to train predoctoral, postdoctoral and clinical fellows. But the agency, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is promising money it does not yet have, because the referendum that created the initiative is being challenged in court.
CIRM is operating now thanks to a $3 million loan from the state and a $5 million charitable donation, but it could run out of money as early as May 2006.
If the lawsuits are resolved or alternative funding is secured, about 170 scholars will get training each year under the recently awarded grants. CIRM awarded the grants to three nonprofit research labs and to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, the California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Southern California and eight campuses of the University of California system.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/10/03/prbf1003.htm.
