Coordinates: 374640.65N 1222333.09W / 37.7779583N 122.3925250W / 37.7779583; -122.3925250 The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was created by California's Proposition 71 (2004), which authorized it to issue $3 billion in grants, funded by bonds, over ten years for embryonic stem cell and other biomedical research. It is claimed[by whom?] to be the world's largest single backer of research in stem cells, though the U.S. Federal government is the largest sponsor of grant money in the world.[citation needed] CIRM awarded its first grants to train 169 stem cell researchers in April 2006. It funded its first research grants, totaling more than $100 million, in the first quarter of 2007.[citation needed]

Implementation was delayed by litigation filed by various organizations, challenging the constitutionality of California Proposition 71 (2004). Constitutional challenges against Proposition 71 came to an end on May 16, 2007 when California Supreme Court declined to review two lower court decisions.[citation needed] In the meantime, CIRM has funded its grants and operations with loans -- $150 million from the California General Fund, authorized by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and $45 million from private philanthropists. On July 21, 2006, Schwarzenegger authorized $150 million in loans to the Institute in an attempt to jump start the process of funding research.[1]

On September 14, 2007, Australian scientist Alan Trounson was appointed president of California's stem cell agency.[2]

In 2009 CIRM issued $67 million in early translational grants to 13 nonprofit organizations as well as two companies, Novocell and BioTime (NYSEMKT:BTX), helmed by Michael D. West, Ph.D., founder of Geron (NASDAQ:GERN).[3]

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In the News 2013-12-16 - A pathway known for its role in regulating adult stem cells has been shown to be important for hair follicle proliferation, but contrary to previous studies, is not required within hair follicle stem cells for their survival, according to researchers with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. A new study, published in Cell Stem Cell, identifies a molecular pathway that can be activated to prompt hair growth of dormant hair follicles, or blocked to prevent growth of unwanted hair. 2013-07-22 - In a new paper published this week online in Nature, a team led by Edward E. Morrisey, PhD, professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology and scientific director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, shows that the pulmonary vasculature, the blood vessels that connect the heart to the lung, develops even in the absence of the lung. Mice in which lung development is inhibited still have pulmonary blood vessels, which revealed to the researchers that cardiac progenitors, or stem cells, are essential for cardiopulmonary co-development. The team identified a population of multi-potent CardioPulmonary mesoderm Progenitor cells they named CPPs. The CPPs can be distinguished from many other early embryonic cells by the expression of a well-studied signaling molecule Wnt2. 2013-06-20 - Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania scientists have used stem-cell technology to create a research cell line from a patient with advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).This first-of-its-kind human-cell model of pancreatic cancer progression was published this week in Cell Reports from the lab of Ken Zaret, PhD, professor of Cell and Developmental Biology.It is the first example using induced pluripotent stem [iPS] cells to model cancer progression directly from a solid tumor, and the first human cell line that can model pancreatic cancer progression from early to invasive stages, says Zaret, also the associate director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine. 2013-05-15 - Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University accomplished in humans what has been done over the past 15 years in sheep, mice, cattle and several other species. The achievement is likely to, at least temporarily, reawaken worries about reproductive cloning the production of one-parent duplicate humans.

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