As this blog has previously reported (here,
here,
and here),
the California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine (CIRM) has over the years been steadily moving away from its
founding mission of giving funding priority to human embryonic stem cell
research (hESCR). Instead, since 2009 it
updated its strategic plan to give priority to funding projects most likely to
result in clinical trials; accordingly CIRM
has been providing ever larger amounts of funding to adult stem cell and
other ethically non-contentious research alternatives to hESCR.
CIRM’s most recent round of research grants, the Early Translational
IV Research Awards, again confirms this trend.
According to CIRM, “the
Early Translational Research Initiative aims to fund and advance
potentially transformative stem cell therapies towards IND [Investigational New Drug]-enabling
preclinical and clinical development.”
In the fourth
round of grants under this Initiative, announced in late August, only two
of the thirteen grants awarded were for projects using hESCs, while 10 grants
were for research using adult, induced pluripoternt stem cells (iPSCs) and
other non-embryonic stem cell approaches.[1] Of the total $40.6 million in grants awarded,
projects using ethically non-contentious alternatives to hESR received $34.1
million; research using human embryonic stem cells received $6.4 million.
A look at previous grants under the Early Translational
Research Awards category clearly confirms CIRM’s developing preference for
non-embryonic stem cell research as the best path leading to actual clinical
trials.
The first
round of such grants came in 2009.
Fifteen grants were awarded; nine for hESCR (three of which also
included iPSCs) with the remaining six going to research using adult and/or
induced pluripotent stem cells.
With the second
round of Early Translational grants in 2010 a clear preference for funding
non-hESCR emerges. The number of funded projects
using adult or induced pluripotent stem cells doubled from the previous year to
12, while only five projects were funded using hESCs.
In 2012, a
third round of Early Translational grants was awarded. Fifteen, or just over 70% of the 21 total
grants awarded went to adult and induced pluripotent stem cell research; the
remaining 6 grants went to hESCR projects.
In the 2013 round of grants, the percentage of those going
to non-hESCR increased to 77%. The
number of grants given to hESCR in 2013 fell to just 15% of the total, the
lowest percentage since the first round of Translational grants in 2009, when
hESCR received 60% of total grants awarded.
The old Watergate-era adage advises that one should “follow
the money” to really get to the truth of the matter.
In the case of CIRM’s research grants over the past several
years, the truth is that when you follow the money, you find yet more evidence
that the future of regenerative medicine is with iPSCs, adult stem cells and
other ethically non-contentious alternatives to human embryonic stem cell
research.
