California's Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Priorities: New Proposal to Back 'Platform' Technologies

Latest developments in sweeping review of how the stem cell agency will spend its last billions

CIRM has prepared a look at 16 diseases and a wide range of data. This chart was extracted from the full report.

The $12 billion California stem cell and gene therapy program is considering launching a new effort to speed the development of revolutionary gene therapies that promise to cure currently incurable diseases. 

The proposal involves something called platform technology, which is attracting billions from venture capitalists, according to a report from McKinsey and Company.

The stem cell agency did not offer a definition of what it means by “platform technology.” But here is one that is useful: “a platform basically means a group of technologies that can be used as a base and upon which other technologies or processes or other applications can be built up.”

The platform proposal surfaced last week in a document prepared for CIRM’s priority review meeting on Thursday. The review will determine how the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) spends its last $3.9 billion. 

The results are certain to play a major role