PALO ALTO, Ca. -- The man often regarded as the “father” of California’s multibillion-dollar stem cell and gene therapy program is calling on the agency to double its annual spending on research to $900 million to help stave off the destructive impact of the Trump administration on science.

Speaking at a Stanford University conference Tuesday, Robert Klein appealed to CIRM to fill federal funding gaps and protect “the highest risk scientists” -- young researchers, postdocs and granduate students -- who would “suffer greatly and perhaps have their careers terminated.”

Klein made the pitch at the end of his 30-minute speech and received a standing ovation, the only one of the day at the stem cell and gene therapy conference.

Klein, president of a Palo Alto housing development firm, was the first chair of CIRM. He directed the writing of the two initiatives that provided $8.5 billion for stem cell and gene therapies. Klein also led the multimillion-dollar campaigns to collect hundreds of thousands of voter signatures and win voter approval in statewide elections in 2004 and 2020.

“We have a crisis today,” Klein told his audience. He urged them to support efforts to win Democratic control of both houses of Congress this fall in order to minimize more Trump damage to research funding. The best way to do that, he said, is to work with patients and patient advocates. Appearing in public together boosts the impact of pro-science message.

CIRM did not have an immediate comment on Klein’s proposal. It has been slow to increase funding in response to the Trump regime’s machinations. However, last year CIRM boosted spending on basic research by $37 million.

The agency is now beginning to work through the details of its budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins July 1. Last September, it published a proposed spending plan for the final years of its life but did not go into details. The projections listed research spending totals for each year until CIRM runs out of cash. Here are the figures:

2025-26, $491 million

2026-27, $657 million

2027-28, $850 million

2028-29, $556 million

2029-30, $430 million

2030-31, $500 million

(See chart below for more details.)

Come 2031, CIRM will have to begin a shutdown if it doesn’t find a source for the billions it needs to operate at its historic levels. Spending more money faster, as Klein proposed, will bring that day sooner.

Running another ballot initiative campaign is the most likely source of significant funding, but it will have to come well before 2031 to have the best chances of success. The presidential election year of 2028 would offer a new initiative the best chances of approval, based on historical performance of bond elections.

State bond funding of research is unusual in the United States. And Klein crafted complex rules for it that are now embedded in state law.

Under the ballot initiatives of 2004 and 20220, voters provided $8.5 billion for research. But the funds do not come as a lump sum. Instead, the law states that CIRM is entitled each year to only $540 million from state bonds but with a significant “carry-over” provision. Following his speech, Klein told me that provision will provide the immediate cash needed for his $900 million plan.

The 17,000-word state law that Klein crafted states that “funds that are not committed may be carried over to one or more following years. The maximum amount of research funding to be allocated annually is as follows: year 1, 11 percent; year 2, 11 percent; years 3 through 10, 9 percent; and year 11 and each year thereafter, 6 percent cumulatively.”

Klein is well-versed in bond funding. He is a lawyer, and his business uses government finance programs to leverage its real estate dealings. The California Stem Cell Report has queried him for more information on his plan for CIRM.

Clin is clinical stage, PDev is preclinical development or translational, Disc is discovery or basic, Educ is Education and training, Infr is infrastructure.

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