CGS-authored
Running with the $150 million loan it just got from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the board overseeing California's $3 billion stem-cell institute said Wednesday it will begin soliciting its first research proposals within weeks.
The board also passed a policy to guard against bias in awarding the grants, by requiring the institute's advisory boards to disclose ties to companies or universities doing stem-cell work.
Armed with Schwarzenegger's loan, the institute plans to begin awarding grants as soon as February, a move that elicited cheers from several of the agency's board members Wednesday at their meeting.
``We now are in business,'' said Sherry Lansing, a board members and former chair of Paramount Pictures, at the institute's board meeting. ``I can't help but be excited.''
The board plans to award 70 grants totaling $151.5 million, all of it allocated for studying human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from embryos and can grow into any type of tissue.
The institute was created by California voters in 2004 primarily to conduct that kind of research, after President Bush limited federal financing in that area...
The board also passed a policy to guard against bias in awarding the grants, by requiring the institute's advisory boards to disclose ties to companies or universities doing stem-cell work.
Armed with Schwarzenegger's loan, the institute plans to begin awarding grants as soon as February, a move that elicited cheers from several of the agency's board members Wednesday at their meeting.
``We now are in business,'' said Sherry Lansing, a board members and former chair of Paramount Pictures, at the institute's board meeting. ``I can't help but be excited.''
The board plans to award 70 grants totaling $151.5 million, all of it allocated for studying human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from embryos and can grow into any type of tissue.
The institute was created by California voters in 2004 primarily to conduct that kind of research, after President Bush limited federal financing in that area...