(La Jolla, CA., February 16, 2007) The Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) will receive $ 5,925,878 in grants awarded from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) as part of the first research grants approved under Proposition 71, the Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, adopted by California voters in November 2004. Earlier today, the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, the governing body charged with implementing Proposition 71, approved the allocation of $45 million to fund 72 grants awarded under CIRMs Scientific Excellence through Exploration and Development (SEED) Grant Program.
In funding these SEED grants, CIRM is fulfilling its commitment to making a major impact on stem cell science and health care, said Dr. Evan Snyder, Professor and Director of Stem Cell Research at Burnham. These are the first grants to support fundamental science. By giving priority to SEED funding, CIRM is supporting early-stage science that could not be funded under current stem cell funding guidelines at the National Institutes of Health.
CIRMs SEED program is intended to bring new ideas and new investigators into the field of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research and offer an opportunity for investigators to carry out studies that may yield preliminary data or proof-of-principle results that could then be extended to full-scale investigations. The 72 grants approved for funding earlier today were selected from 231 applications submitted to CIRM.
At Burnham, the SEED funding will help launch innovative projects each of which will explore a different aspect of stem cell biology in areas of medical relevance ranging from heart disease, Parkinsons, cancer, and neural development, to the development of methods for deriving and culturing human embryonic stem cell lines.
Projects awarded at Burnham: