CIRM and NIH stem cell grants to the biotech industry

Different attitudes, same endeavors.

1. The folks at the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) started to offer grants for biotech companies up to $55,000 out of the 3 billion ‘hope’ dollars.

San Diego Union Tribune: Industry and academia team up:

For the first time in its three-year existence, the state taxpayer-funded stem cell institute is offering grant money to biotechnology companies….The stem cell institute wants to issue up to 20 planning grants to allow prospective disease-team members to hold teleconferences and travel to meetings around the state with potential collaborators to work out the details of how their group would function.

The idea is to form a team whose members have expertise in all areas of developing a drug or diagnostic – from the initial idea to testing it on animal models, producing enough of it for experiments and figuring out how it meets the needs of patients.

2. On the other hand, the NIH people in Bethesda, Maryland like the West and East Coast United Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) but not because the company’s single cell biopsy method for creating ethical ES cells.

Reuters: Advanced Cell Technology Awarded Grant from the NIH

Donating Frozen Embryos for Stem Cell Research: a survey in Science

EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS: Willingness to Donate Frozen Embryos for Stem Cell Research by Anne Drapkin Lyerly and Ruth R. Faden, Science 6 July 2007: Vol. 317. no. 5834, pp. 46 - 47 DOI: 10.1126/science.1145067

We conducted a survey of 2210 infertility patients receiving treatment at one of nine major, geographically diverse infertility centers and asked these patients about their intentions for the embryos they currently stored. Participating centers were located in California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The respondents were asked to answer a set of questions with one of the following: very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely, very unlikely, or unsure/don’t know.

/Figure legend. Disposition option for some or all of cryopreserved embryos currently stored. SCNT, somatic cell nuclear transfer. Key: Somewhat likely (lavender), very likely (gray).
CREDIT: MIODRAG STOJKOVIC/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY /

Reconfigure the NIH!

Although I have no time now to meditate on NIH policies (I must take care of my cells), but I spread this package from Tom further, as the timing seems good, especially what concerns stem cell research. 4 rules (1 abandoned by me), and 1 copy/paste.

1. Include in your post the links to the NIH RFI and the comments page.

2. Include the list of six topics the NIH wants information about.

Challenges of NIH System of Research Support
Please describe any specific challenges presented by NIH’s support of biomedical and behavioral research such as the current array of grant mechanisms, number of grants awarded per investigator, and the duration of grants.

Challenges of NIH Peer Review Process
Please describe any specific challenges presented by the current peer review process at NIH.

Solutions to Challenges
Please concisely describe specific approaches or concepts that would address any of the above challenges, even if it involves a radical change to the current approach.

Core Values of NIH Peer Review Process
Please describe the core values of NIH peer review that must be maintained or enhanced.

Peer Review Criteria and Scoring
Are the appropriate criteria and scoring procedures being used by NIH to evaluate applications during peer review? If not, are there changes in either that you would recommend?

Career Pathways
Is the current peer review process for investigators at specific stages in their career appropriate? If not, what changes would you recommend?

3. Comment on one or more of these issues. Reconsider the stem cell grant system completely.

4. Decide who the next seven vectors will be for this meme. Sorry, I don’t.

Stem Cell Cup: California Embryonics vs Massachusetts Oldies: $3 vs $1.25 Billion

While people in California can think they are in the centre of the (embryonic) stem cell universe due to Proposition 71’s $3 Billion and the invasion of good scientists into the West Coast, Massachusetts academic and biotech people also are thinking along those lines, so state officials quickly set up a $1.25 Billion package for funding stem cell research in the very state and “establishing the first stem cell bank, a repository of all the stem cell lines created in Massachusetts laboratories, which would serve as a kind of stem cell lending library to scientists around the world. “

Links:

Massachusetts floats $1 bln stem cell research plan (Reuters)

Massachusetts Proposes Stem Cell Research Grants (New York Times)

Stem Cell Research Budget Cutting in Florida

It is just $20 million but look at the policy behind: Stem cell research faces budget shortfall

Competitive strength of California Institutions measured by stem cell grants

Press Release of California Institute of Regenerative Medicine: LOS ANGELES, March 16, 2007 – “Just a month after approving nearly $45 million for embryonic stem cell research, California’s stem cell agency authorized another $75.7 million in additional funds for established scientists at 12 non-profit and academic institutions.”

With this latest round of CIRM donation more than $158 million has been approved for research grants at 23 California institutions. From this table below (from the press release) we can guess the competitive strengths of the universities and research institutes:

80 year old Lokey’s $33 million donation for Stanford Stem Cell Labs

Such a Californian story: Lorry I. Lokey, the founder of Business Wire will give a minimum of $33 million to help build a home for Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Lokey says: “The important thing to me is that stem cells might not only extend life, but also improve the quality of life, as so many people suffer in their later years,” said Lokey, who will turn 80 in March. “But I think stem cells will have applications across the entire life span.” Lokey’s contribution to the School of Medicine—its largest single gift to date from an individual—will launch construction of new stem cell laboratories on campus where scientists will probe the power of these elusive cells in treating conditions as diverse as cancer, stroke and diabetes. Lokey launched Business Wire in San Francisco in 1961 with $2,000 of his own money. It quickly grew to become a news industry powerhouse, now distributing an average of 17,000 corporate and academic press releases a month. “The biotech revolution has become so important to the quality of life,” he said. “To me, the biotech field is going to be very, very hot for the next generation.” Link

Studies recommended for funding by California Stem Cell Rush dollars

The working future of embryonic stem cell biology and regenerative medicine is in the 38 projects listed and linked below. Or at least in some of them. These are the research projects that were recommended for funding available by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine after a thorough evaluation and all applications can be found in the Public List of CIRM. 47 more were recommended for funding if money is available. If you choose to scan through the public abstracts of the proposal (linked with the numbers) I also strongly recommend to read the WEAKNESSES part of the review. The order of the projects is descending from the highest scientific score (out of 100) to the lowest.

96 Generation of forebrain neurons from human embryonic stem cells RS1-00205-1

95 The APOBEC3 Gene Family as Guardians of Genome Stability in Human Embryonic Stem Cells RS1-00210-1

95 Generation of hESC lines, under defined conditions, modeling normal & diseased states from material stored at the Burnham shared embryo bank. RS1-00305-1

94 Gene regulatory mechanisms that control spinal neuron differentiation from hES cells. RS1-00288-1

93 Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Embryonic Stem Cells RS1-00432-1

Symbolic and embryonic NIH grant to Advanced Cell and Burnham Institue

Press release: Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. a leader biotech company in human embryonic stem (ES) cell technology concerning regenerative medicine, has been awarded a research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the amount of $204,439 in conjunction with a research project currently underway with one of its academic partners, The Burnham Institute of Medical Research (Burnham Institute).

Grant title: “Directed Differentiation of Embryonic Stem Cells using Phage Displayed Ligands”. From the press release: The project unites Advanced Cell’s expertise in embryonic stem cell biology, phage display, phage targeting technology and gene discovery, with Burnham Institute’s expertise in developmental biology, cardiac biology, and vascular biology, among others. Phage display is a powerful tool that extends the range of modern combinatorial screening techniques, allowing the discovery and characterisation of proteins that interact with a desired target. Briefly: the aim of the project is “to use phage display as a tool to discover novel molecules for directing stem cells to form useful cell types and tissues”.

I have serious doubts on what can achieve with 200 thousand bucks only in this area of research (think about the million dollar annual budget of stem cell labs, the $3 billion in California, and the over $27 billion annual investment budget of NIH) but I am not reluctant to admit the symbolical and political gesture behind this NIH grant.

Adult stem cells and astronauts in the ISS with one screwdriver

“Allowing research into the medical uses of adult stem cells, but not embryonic stem cells, is the equivalent of sending astronauts to work on the international space station with a single tool” according to Dr. Geoffrey Lomax, senior officer for medical and ethical standards of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, running California’s $3 billion stem cell research program. Link

Well, if we ever would like to use stem cell therapy to extend healthy lifespan through continuous regeneration of every organ and tissue we have to use probably all available forms and sources of stem cells.

2 unintended consequences of stem cell research via Lomax’s MIIS talk yesterday:

i., Improved therapeutic techniques can drive medical costs up, because all patients will want the new, expensive cures.

ii., Intellectual property questions have arisen over who or what agency “owns” the fruits of stem cell research financed by the taxpayers.

Real arguments not just echo chambering in embryonic stem cell funding debate

Finally a journalist at Wired, Brandon Keim thought it’s time to check out some facts and formulate real arguments in the embryonic stem cell funding debate instead of boondoggling. He has collected good historical examples of long-term funding in drug research, which then saved many lives, like Taxol, and has enumerated fields of promising science, like proteomics, gene therapy and nanotechnology which are heavily donated with hundreds of millions of dollars by federal government, although as unproven yet as regenerative medicine based on embryonic stells. Thank you Brandon it is really wired. Link

“A favorite argument as to why the federal government should not fund embryonic stem cell research is that the science is unproven. It has not led to any cures or FDA-approved treatments. That happens to be true. But that doesn’t make it a good argument. In fact, most of the science funded by the federal government is not successful yet, since proven science doesn’t usually need funding.”

Election perspectives in tech support: New York City as California’s rival in stem cell billions?

Check this fresh Wired review about US Midterm elections’ effects on high-tech possibilities for the United States: In New York, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s gubernatorial victory was no surprise, but it’s a big win for stem-cell research in that state. Spitzer wants to commit several billion dollars of the state’s money to the science. Link I’ve heard about only 1 billion.

What would happen if Bill Gates invested 3 billion dollars to embryonic stem cell research?

There is a dense comment debate on Bodyhack for more than a week concerning the electoral Missouri Stem Cell Hunter issue, celebs with ESC pro- or contra ads.
Here is an effective comment from today’s related post by the commenter named Orrin:

“I wonder what would happen if Bill Gates invested 2 billion dollars to embryonic stem cell research and just got people to shut up. I’m sure there would be those who accused him of murdering babies while others would say that is still isn’t enough money.“

Well, Bill Gates is now a full-time charity man, which makes him more attractive in the eyes of many people, comparing to the times when he was a chief technology officer or software architect at a company. It was in a William Gates III building, as I know from the the Google story, where the PageRank algorithm was born, for example. In the case of embryonic stem cell research, we do not really know the opinion of Mr. Gates, but I think this would be really a useful celeb opinion to know.

Interestingly the Gates Foundation has already put a little money, with 3 zero minus than 3 billion in embryonic research, but in China, not in the U.S.: Still, some billionaires have shied away from this science scrap. Bill Gates’ foundation, the largest in the world with $29 billion on hand, has put less than $2 million into research on human embryonic cells–at a lab at Peking University in China. Researchers there are implanting human cells in mice to look for better ways of making vaccines against aids and hepatitis C. A spokesperson for the Gates Foundation says the Peking researchers hit on the right idea; that the foundation hasn’t funded a single stem-cell test in the U.S., she adds, isn’t related to the anti-abortion fight.
So if Mr. Gates does agree with the purposes of embryonic stem cell research, than it is time to invest big bucks in it. Who knows, maybe this contribution could decide the debate in the U.S….