http://www.cirm.ca.gov/StemCellBasics_Questions
http://sdrmi.org/wordpress/?p=278
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=13523
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was established by California voters in 2004 to defy US President George W. Bush who, we were told, 'banned' human embryonic stem stem cell research.(1) Voters were willing to do it with $3 billion of borrowed money, that is how important science was to California, because stem cell research was going to both make us immortal and cure Alzheimer's, if only Republicans would get out of the way.
At least that is what we were told. Some skepticism was in order. hESC research was not 'banned' but if you think it was, you are forgiven because science media framed it that way. In reality, President Bush compromised - there was a time when presidents did that - and limited federal funding to existing lines, which delighted NIH-funded researchers because there had been zero federal hESC funding dollars during the Clinton years. Everyone was happy. Yet by the 2004 election, a federal funding limitation became referred to as a 'ban' and those same researchers believed Republicans were anti-science.
You know what is still banned today, after President Obama convinced loyal voters in science he would restore science to its rightful place in 2008? Human embryonic stem cell research. His executive order changed almost nothing, it slightly modified the NIH guidelines and we are still far behind other countries, but he is perceived as 'lifting the ban' that never existed. What is actually banned is Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer research on humans but if you use the word 'banned' you will be told you are incorrect and that the Federal government simply does not fund it. If you can see how a restriction is a ban before 2008 but a restriction is not a ban after 2008, you must be a science blogger.
What does all that background have to do with CIRM? NIH funding has at least some chance of doing good. It succeeds because agencies and panels staffed by experts sift through proposals and decide which ones have the most value. Our federal grant system isn't perfect, no one in science wants to be told their project is not as valuable as something else, but the system works.
Imagine instead a system where the people getting the money also get to sit on the panels determining who gets the money. That is what California has in CRIM: partisans exploiting grieving widow Nancy Reagan with the promise that hESC would cure the Alzheimer's that caused America's 40th president to slip away from her have instead created a system with almost no accountability. A new report from the Institute of Medicine does not come out and say that CIRM is corrupt, they instead say “far too many board members represent organizations” that receive funding or benefit from the stem cell agency. Can you say conflict of interest?
Beginning in 2009, the power of hESC research, a slam-dunk if only a Democrat was in power, suddenly an exploratory basic science effort, more like a marathon than a sprint. In a few short years, CIRM is going to run out of money. And there is little reason to renew it because there is little they have done with the money they got.
, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. However, CIRM's efforts could be enhanced by creating an external scientific advisory board to provide continuing and consistent strategic advice, by dealing more effectively with the perception of conflicts of interest on its governing board, and by reorganizing its governance to ensure that the board is able to provide independent oversight.The IOM's review, commissioned by CIRM, noted that the organization rapidly built a high-quality research portfolio that has supported 40 patent applications and three license agreements and enabled grant recipients to attract over $1 billion in matching funds. While the study committee was not asked to evaluate the merits of individual projects that CIRM has funded or denied, it commended the institute for quickly implementing a thoughtful and effective grant-making process. At the same time, however, CIRM's leadership and California legislators need to consider changes in the institute's governance and operations given the rapid progress being made in the field, the institute's need for independent oversight, and the institute's desire to steer its efforts from basic research to clinical applications, the report says
(1) He did not do what his predecessor, President Obama, repeatedly said he was going to do in his State of the Union address last evening; use executive orders to circumvent Congress. So he obeyed Federal funding laws signed by President Clinton but still compromised by limiting Federal funding to existing lines, a decision that thrilled NIH Director Ruth Kirchenstein, because hESCs had not been funded at all during the Clinton years. Once Democrats made that an anti-science campaign issue, both sides became more entrenched but during the debate a number of prominent conservatives supported funding it. Bush was able to compromise with them and across the aisle, something we do not see much of in 2014.
