The Keck School's grant was called "very thoughtful" by CIRM's Research Funding Working Group and was one of many grants announced here today during a public meeting of the Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee, or ICOC, the group charged with governing CIRM and the way in which it disperses the $3 billion in funding provided it by the passage of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative in November, 2004.

"This is an exciting moment for the CIRM, as these awards mark the first step in our scientific program of stem cell research--an accomplishment we have been able to achieve in less than one year as a state agency," said Zach Hall, Ph.D., CIRM's interim president. "The CIRM training program established today will be the most comprehensive training program to date in the field. It will provide a pipeline of highly trained basic and clinical investigators for the research that CIRM will fund in California."

"This grant award bodes well for the program we are trying to develop here at the Keck School of Medicine--the USC Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine--and speaks highly of the research being conducted here and at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles," said Brian E. Henderson, M.D., dean of the Keck School of Medicine and a member of the ICOC. "But the truth is that the entire research community, and indeed the entire region, stands to benefit from this funding. It really is an extraordinary opportunity, and I'm proud to be a part of it."

The Keck School's Stem Cell Biology Training Grant will be used to train graduate students as well as post-doctoral and clinical fellows across 27 departments at USC, with trainees being recruited from existing Ph.D
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Contact: Jon Weiner
jon.weiner@usc.edu
323-442-2823
University of Southern California
12-Sep-2005