CIRM stem cell funding opens

Posted: Published on January 10th, 2015

This post was added by Dr. Richardson

Endocrine cells develop in human islet-like structures following transplantation in an animal model. These cells produce insulin in response to glucose, effectively replacing the insulin that is lost in people with Type 1 diabetes. Insulin is depicted in blue; somatostatin in red, glucagon in green.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine said Friday it is now accepting grant applications for funding under its overhauled system.

CIRM 2.0, as it's called, is designed to sharpen the focus on quickly translating research to therapies. The state agency says the overhaul reduces the time from application to funding from 22 months to about four months, or 120 days.

C. Randal Mills, CIRM's president and CEO, advocated the changes to make the agency more responsive to patient needs.

The agency is also changing its way of dealing with applicants, according to a CIRM press release. It will act "not as a passive funding source, but instead as an active investor," the agency said. It will use its own internal resources and outside experts to help advance its selected projects.

In December CIRM's governing oversight board approved $50 million for clinical trials and late-state preclinical work for the first six months of the new program.

The first three programs are for projects ready for clinical trials or are doing work required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to gain approval for a clinical trial, the agency said. These programs are:

PA 15-01: Partnering opportunity for late stage preclinical projects

PA 15-02: Partnering opportunity for clinical trial stage projects

PA 15-03: Partnering opportunity for supplemental accelerating activities

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CIRM stem cell funding opens

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