San Francisco

The funds for California's stem-cell research initiative may finally start flowing. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has been unable to use the US$3-billion that it was granted by California voters nearly a year ago because of ongoing legal wrangles. But on 3 October, state officials began the process of selling up to $55 million in bond anticipation notes for the first grants.

Sixteen research institutions are anxiously awaiting the first $12.5 million, awarded last month as training grants for 170 graduate students, fellows and postdocs over the next year. And last weekend, leading stem-cell researchers met in San Francisco to discuss what to do with the money.

The CIRM was formed to conduct studies that the US government will not fund because of restrictions laid out by President George W. Bush. The grants are part of the institute's unprecedented effort to create a huge research programme from scratch, while fighting off legal and political challenges from those who oppose studies involving human embryos (see Nature 434, 694–696; 2005).

At the San Francisco meeting, prominent stem-cell researchers, including those from Canada and Sweden, joined US colleagues to help the CIRM chart research paths. The nearly 150 scientists in attendance called for basic research with an eye to advancing to clinical trials as quickly as possible. Suggested topics include how stem cells differentiate, the immunological barriers to stem-cell transplantation, and creating new imaging techniques to track stem cells transplanted into humans.

Among those at the meeting, stem-cell researcher Andras Nagy of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto disclosed that he and his colleagues had developed an embryonic stem-cell line from dogs, which they hope may shed light on species differences and so help researchers apply the results of studies in mice to humans.

Legal challenges have slowed the CIRM's plan to issue about $250 million annually in grants over the next decade. Three Sacramento-area groups — the People's Advocate, the National Tax Limitation Foundation and the California Family Bioethics Council — filed lawsuits earlier this year in the state court. They claimed that Proposition 71, which California voters overwhelmingly approved last November to create the CIRM, was technically flawed.

Two of these suits were combined into a single action at a superior court in August; a judge is to issue a crucial ruling on 17 November, when state attorneys will request that the lawsuits be dismissed.

If they are dismissed, the state will still have to wait about a year for the appeals process to finish before it can start selling bonds to fund the full annual research amounts. Meanwhile, on 3 November the state announced plans to sell bond anticipation notes to philanthropic organizations that could serve as a financial bridge for the first $55 million.

Despite the ongoing legal and political battles, CIRM officials, grant awardees and universities are charging ahead. Even though no money is yet available, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles will soon announce plans for a large new building with a wing devoted to stem-cell research, says Francis Markland, associate dean of scientific affairs, the construction of which is to begin early next year. The university is working to recruit six to eight professors to positions there.

Elsewhere, young researchers and senior faculty members have put career decisions on hold as they consider moving to California institutes in search of CIRM research funds. “This does cause some anxiety,” says physician Robert Mahley, president of the J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, which is to receive $2.4 million in training grants over three years. “But we are prepared to wait it out.”