$70 Million Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Project Garners Mainstream Media Attention

Posted: July 28, 2013 at 3:03 am

California's $70 million plan for a
chain of “Alpha” stem cell clinics today received its first major
attention from the mainstream media.
The story came in the state's largest
circulation newspaper, appearing this morning on the home page of the
website of Los Angeles Times.
The Alpha project would create five clinics
around the state and a coordination/information center under a
concept that comes before the governing board of the state's $3
billion stem cell agency at its meeting tomorrow in Burlingame, Ca. Funds could be
awarded as early as a year from now. (For more information, see here
and here.)
Reporter Eryn Brown quoted Natalie
DeWitt, special projects officer for CIRM, as the stem cell agency is known, and Maria Millan, a CIRM
medical officer. Brown wrote,

“Clinics to conduct trials of stem
cell therapies have different needs than clinics designed to deliver
conventional therapies, DeWitt and Millan said. They need special
facilities for handling the cells safely, as well as imaging
equipment to track the cells once they're delivered into a patient’s
body.  Some of this infrastructure already exists, but other
parts of it still need to be perfected.  Establishing clinics to
house multiple trials might create the critical mass needed to get
the infrastructure in place, they said....

"Additionally, they said, CIRM
hopes that such collaboration would encourage stem cell companies to
share information -- speeding their own work and also helping out
policymakers and insurers who are trying to figure out how they'll
pay for stem cell therapies in the future.”

The Times quoted the
California Stem Cell Report as saying last week,

 “The Alpha clinics
are aimed at creation of a sturdy foundation for the stem cell
industry in California, capitalizing on the burgeoning, international
lure of stem cell treatments.”

The proposal envisions Alpha stem cell
clinics at major, established institutions around the state. It is
possible that two could be located in the Los Angeles area at
institutions such as UCLA, USC, Cedars-Sinai or the City of Hope, all
of which have representatives on the stem cell agency's governing
board. Other likely locations are in the San Francisco Bay area and
San Diego, again at facilities such as Stanford, UC San Francisco and
UC San Diego that have representation on the agency board.

Institutions competing for the grants,
including businesses, will be subject to closed-door. peer review
prior to final action by the full governing board.  

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/s_-mm4nTU_0/70-million-alpha-stem-cell-clinic.html

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