Six Month Pause on Research Applications at California's Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Program

Multibillion-dollar enterprise needs time to work through its sweeping, new priorities

The $12 billion California stem cell and gene therapy agency has imposed a six-month pause on new applications for its research awards, which will not open up again until next spring. 

The suspension will give the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) time to digest the full impact of its new priorities, approved just last week, and chart more specifically its new course. 

As the management maxim goes, an organization sometimes has to slow things down to speed things up. 

The pause was announced at last week’s full board meeting. The California Stem Cell Report queried CIRM on Monday for details.