National Research Funding Turmoil and California's Stem Cell Agency's Sustainability

Comments from the CIRM chair, Vito Imbasciani

Vito Imbasciani at the CIRM board meeting in March. Maria Bonneville, vice chair of the board, is on his right, along with Judy Gasson, chair of the board’s governance committee and a UCLA scientist. California Stem Cell Report photo.

BURLINGAME, Ca. -- “Upended” and “unsettled” -- two words that the chair of the $12 billion California stem cell and gene therapy program uttered last week to describe the state of biomedical research funding in the United States.

Vito Imbasciani made the remarks at a meeting here of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) as he briefed its 35-member governing board about the sustainability of his own agency.

CIRM has only $3.6 billion left before it runs out of cash for awards. That could be reduced to nearly $3 billion by this time next year if the agency sticks to the budget that it approved last week. CIRM will effectively cease to exist when its billions run out unless it can conjure up more funding, which is currently based on voter-approved state borrowing.

Imbasciani has taken the board lead on addressing the question of CIRM’s sustainability. The topic has special import