Stem-cell program awards $74.5M in grants

By: BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer | Friday, March 16, 2007 10:23 PM PDT ∞

LOS ANGELES ---- In its largest award to date, California's stem cell program allocated $74.5 million for research intended to produce new treatments for incurable diseases.

The nearly 30 grants, awarded Thursday and announced Friday, include six totalling nearly $16.5 million for research by scientists in San Diego's large biomedical community, which has eagerly embraced stem-cell research.

Members of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, which governs the $3 billion program, made the grants while meeting at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine was established to issue the grants, but has been slowed down by legal challenges.

In an upbeat mood after a string of court victories, members said the program was finally kicking into high gear.

"This is a historic day," said Robert Klein, chairman of the oversight committee. "The committee has funded here the greatest total-dollar commitment to stem-cell research in the world."

The program was established in 2004 in response to President Bush's decision to allow only limited federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Stem cells are cells that form the various organs of the body. The most adaptable are embryonic stem cells. Taken from days-old embryos, they are the precursors of nearly all organs of the body.

Three grants totalling $7.5 million went to researchers at the UC San Diego. Two grants totalling $6.1 million went to researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. One grant of $2.9 million was awarded to researcher Rusty Gage at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. All are near one another on La Jolla's Torrey Pines Mesa, the center of San Diego's biomedical research community.

At UCSD, Yang Xu received $2.57 million to study how to keep embryonic stem cells genetically stable. Lawrence Goldstein got $2.5 million to make models of Alzheimer's disease in brain cells produced from embryonic stem cells, to test theories of how the disease works. Martin Marsala got $2.45 million to test using nerve cells grown from human embryonic stem cells to repair spinal cord damage.

At Burnham, one grant of $3.04 million went to Professor Mark Mercola to find ways to develop treatments for heart disease by turning human embryonic stem cells into heart cells. Heart muscle, damaged during heart attacks, does not regenerate. Newly produced heart cells might be able to heal the damage.

A second Burnham grant of $3.04 million funds research into producing nerve cells from human embryonic stem cells. These new cells will be tested in animal models of stroke and Parkinson's disease, a progressively debilitating neurological condition. This grant goes to Stuart Lipton, professor and director of Burnham's Center for Neuroscience, Stem Cell and Aging Research, and Alexey Terskikh, assistant professor.

The $2.9 million grant to Salk researcher Gage goes toward developing methods of turning human embryonic stem cells into neural stem cells. This is a requirement for producing fully developed human brain cells. These would be useful in testing drugs for Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Joan Samuelson, a member of the stem cell committee who has Parkinson's disease, said she hoped to see benefit for her, personally, as well as for others.

"I have to have hope," said Samuelson, who was born in San Diego and grew up in Poway. "It's the only way you get up in the morning if you have Parkinson's disease. And with every additional day bringing more struggle, you have to have more hope. And I've had it for 20 years."

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.