Aggregated News
For a state agency that aims to define the term "visionary," the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine — the stem cell bureau, as it were — has always displayed a curious lack of vision about its own responsibilities.
The taxpayer-funded institute was created by Proposition 71 in 2004 to find cures for diabetes, AIDS, Alzheimer's and a host of other conditions via stem cell research, using $3 billion in bond proceeds ($6 billion including interest).
It goes without saying that it hasn't found those cures, though not for want of spending. Nor has it managed to temper public expectations pumped up by the original initiative campaign, or resolved the persistent questions about whether its grant-making process is subject to adequate public oversight or free of conflicts of interest.
Having sat in on part of the agency board's selection process for a new chairman, I can tell you it hasn't made much of an advance at solving its chronic management difficulties either. The chairmanship search has been a mess, and that couldn't happen at a worse time.
The agency is contemplating...
The taxpayer-funded institute was created by Proposition 71 in 2004 to find cures for diabetes, AIDS, Alzheimer's and a host of other conditions via stem cell research, using $3 billion in bond proceeds ($6 billion including interest).
It goes without saying that it hasn't found those cures, though not for want of spending. Nor has it managed to temper public expectations pumped up by the original initiative campaign, or resolved the persistent questions about whether its grant-making process is subject to adequate public oversight or free of conflicts of interest.
Having sat in on part of the agency board's selection process for a new chairman, I can tell you it hasn't made much of an advance at solving its chronic management difficulties either. The chairmanship search has been a mess, and that couldn't happen at a worse time.
The agency is contemplating...