California Adding $5.5 Billion in Investment for a Promising Stem Cell Research
Recent reports said, about 16 years ago, California voters were promised a $3 billion funding for embryonic stem-cell research that would provide treatments for illnesses like diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and heart disease.
However, reports also said, Californians have received cures or promising treatments for quite a different or unexpected set of diseases like "deadly immune disorder, spinal cord injury," a cancer type, and a form of blindness.
What people from this state probably learned as they decide to continue support by allowing Proposition 14's almost twice the budget of $5.5 billion for research is that "Science marches to its own beat," not to mention its own time, "awe-inspiring" although unaware to what they now call "political pledges."
According to Stanford's Center of Law and the Biosciences director, Hank Greely, they got things but not essentially what they expected. "It is saving lives," he added, although not in the manner most people thought.
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One of the challenges met in clinical trials, in connection to this development is that cure for leukemia, appearing to be around the corner, has been reportedly blocked because of the blood-forming stem cells that stubbornly resist multiplying.
Benefiting from the 'Proposition 71' Funding
Without the so-called ambitious 2004 ballot measure, the first paid for stem cell research, also known as the "Proposition 71," eight-year-old Evangeline Vacarro from Corona reportedly could not have survived her illness.
Hazel-eyed Evangeline was born with a rare condition that made her unable to keep protected from infections. In clinical tests financially backed by the state initiative, scientists fixed the fatal genetic fault that disabled the girl's immune system and restored her health.
In a separate case, Cal Poly engineering student Jake Javier might not be able to live independently. A diving accident left this 22-year-old paralyzed, but he gained some functions in his hands and arms after the specialized neural cells' introduction in a clinical test, which Proposition 71 funding. Javier, a resident of San Ramon, said the specialized neural cells totally "changed the trajectory of my life."
Meanwhile, 28-year-old Sandra Dillon, a graphic designer from San Diego, had myelofibrosis, a rare blood cancer form.
Now, she is in remission following treatment with a drug discovered through Proposition 71 and approved by the Food and Drug Administration. She's no longer hospitalized, too, and is currently backpacking and surfing.
Los Angeles-based Rosie Barrero used to see only shadows before she got injected with stem cells to fight progressive blindness that resulted from retinitis pigmentosa.
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The CIRM
On top of these and over 60 other clinical tests, the CIRM or the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, formed under Proposition 71, has led to roughly 3,000 peer-reviewed papers and more than 970 patents or applications for patents.
Additionally, the CIRM helped fund 12 sophisticated research facilities, with a $43-million donation to Stanford for the "Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building," $20-billion donation to the Regenerative Medicine Research Center of BuckInstitute, and #35-million donation to the Regeneration Medicine Building of UCSF, among others.
All in all, the CIRM has funded five stem-cell focused hospitals and clinics to fast-track the delivery of treatments to patients.
According to School for the Future Innovation in Society at Arizona State University's Robert Cook-Deegan, CIRM has backed various extensive research and researchers and constructed a "powerful infrastructure."
He also said, in a field where there are "no as many other sources of funding," that's almost, indeed, in the long term, "a good thing."
Challenges Met
According to a USC report, initial funding of the CIRM created lesser jobs with 27,208 in California than the 47,000 jobs annually, in estimation.
The said report also specified that there had been various challenges in the clinical background. Diabetes treatment, for one, has been more challenging than anticipated: A potential approach has lagged due to the fact that the immune system of the body rejects the pouch holding the "implanted, insulin-producing cells."
Furthermore, a cure for leukemia, appearing to be around the corner, has been reportedly blocked because of the blood-forming stem cells that stubbornly resist multiplying.
And, while the CIRM anticipates royalties from the future cancer treatment of Gilead, it did not provide any benefit from an explosive rise in terms of share prices as the state Constitution is preventing agencies from holding stocks in private firms.
As voters begin to consider support for the new proposition, those familiar with the issue say it would be unfair to gauge it against the past proposition's current trajectory since medicine gains its greatest rewards several years following the initial investment. It takes a maximum of a decade-and-a-half more on the average "to go from discovery to therapy," experts added.
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Oct 12, 2020 07:20 AM EDT
