CGS-authored
LOS ANGELES — The creation of California’s stem cell agency in 2004 was greeted by scientists and patients as a turning point in a field mired in debates about the destruction of embryos and hampered by federal research restrictions.
The taxpayer-funded institute wielded the extraordinary power to dole out $3 billion in bond proceeds to fund embryonic stem cell work with an eye toward treatments for a host of crippling diseases. Midway through its mission, with several high-tech labs constructed, but little to show on the medicine front beyond basic research, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine faces an uncertain future.
Is it still relevant nearly eight years later? And will it still exist when the money dries up?
The answers could depend once again on voters and whether they’re willing to extend the life of the agency.
Several camps that support stem cell research think taxpayers should not pay another cent given the state’s budget woes.
“It would be so wrong to ask Californians to pony up more money,” said Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society...
The taxpayer-funded institute wielded the extraordinary power to dole out $3 billion in bond proceeds to fund embryonic stem cell work with an eye toward treatments for a host of crippling diseases. Midway through its mission, with several high-tech labs constructed, but little to show on the medicine front beyond basic research, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine faces an uncertain future.
Is it still relevant nearly eight years later? And will it still exist when the money dries up?
The answers could depend once again on voters and whether they’re willing to extend the life of the agency.
Several camps that support stem cell research think taxpayers should not pay another cent given the state’s budget woes.
“It would be so wrong to ask Californians to pony up more money,” said Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society...