California Stem Cell Program Finally Underway

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine approved nearly $45 million in research grants on Friday to about 72 human stem cell research projects around the state. This amount far exceeds the U.S. government’s spending on this type of research making California the biggest financial backer of human embryonic stem cell research in the nation and possibly the world. President Bush had slowed American progress in this research area by limiting federal funding on the research. He and his supporters believe that blastocysts- microscopic embryos that are sometimes destroyed as during this research, are human life and have successfully blocked or delayed these projects. Proponents, however, point to the multitude of human diseases that have the potential to be treated by this technology including leukemia, cancer, parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injuries.

The California stem cell initiative, known as Proposition 71, passed 59 percent to 41 percent in November 2004, but the state’s ability to issue the bonds to support that research has been blocked for two years by lawsuits challenging its legality. While some legal issues remain to be settled, Governor Schwarzenegger authorized a $150 million state loan to the institute so it could begin funding grants without being delayed further by legal complications. The institutes’s board had originally expected to award 30 grants, for a total of about $24 million but a working group reviewing the applications was so impressed with the proposed research that it recommended raising the total to $45 million.

Governor Schwarzenegger, making a brief appearance at the board meeting thanked California scientists and doctors who will use grant money to try to unravel the mystery of stem cells’ ability to morph into the many different cell types in the body. “They are the new action heroes,” Schwarzenegger said, drawing laughs from the board members standing behind him and from people in wheelchairs flanking his lectern. “Thanks to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for making California a world leader in stem cell research,” the governor said, “Today, we are making history”