California: the State of Stem Cell Funding

June 21, 2007 — -- As President Bush vetoed a bill that would have loosened restrictions on embryonic stem cell research Wednesday afternoon, many who see stem cell therapies as solutions to ailments ranging from diabetes to paralysis to cancer are looking for another means of funding for what they regard as a critical area of inquiry.

While several states have passed resolutions to direct funding toward embryonic stem cell research, none have committed as much as California -- a state many see as the model for the immediate future of human embryonic stem cell research.

But for California, the road from approval to actual funding has been a rocky one.

California voters approved Proposition 71, a $3 billion bond for stem cell research, back in November 2004.

While most of that money was intended to go toward embryonic stem cell research, California researchers have yet to see a cent of that money. Legal challenges from groups opposed to stem cells and groups concerned about the management of the funds tied it up in the courts.

Subsequently, researchers have had to either rely on a combination of private funding and a $150 million dollar loan taken out by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, or delay their research entirely.

"We're ready, but we aren't able to begin until we have grant dollars in hand," said Arnold Kriegstein, director of the program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology at the University of California in San Francisco.

He said that 17 labs at UCSF are awaiting funding to begin embryonic stem cell research, but none have been able to start this research because the checks from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the body set up to distribute stem cell funds in the state, have not arrived yet.

The only money the university had received so far, Kriegstein said, came in the form of a training grant, which used funds from Schwarzenegger's loan.

But Kriegstein said that he expects state funding to arrive within the next few weeks -- an assertion backed by CIRM spokesman Dale Carlson.