NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has awarded two grants worth a total of $26 million to Cellular Dynamics and the Coriell Institute for Medical Research to develop new stem cell lines.
Madison, Wis.-based CDI has been granted $16 million to create three induced pluripotent stem cell lines for each of 3,000 healthy and diseased donors. CDI said that it will take tissue samples from patients with Alzheimer's disease, autism spectrum disorders, respiratory diseases, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodevelopmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy and infantile epilepsy, as well as diseases of the eye.
Coriell has received $10 million from CIRM to create and biobank iPSC lines, for which CDI said it will serve as the primary subcontractor. Camden, NJ-based Coriell will establish a biorepository with proven methods for managing sample collection and tracking, safe storage, and capabilities for worldwide distribution of the iPSCs generated by CDI.
CDI Chairman and CEO Bob Palay said that the firm views the grant awards as a "validation of CDI's iCell operating system as the premier platform for high quality human iPSCs and differentiated cells."
CIRM was created in 2004 with the passage of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. The state ballot measure provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research and regenerative medicine at California universities and research institutions and established CIRM to provide grants and loans for stem cell research and other facilities.
It recently said that it plans to use $32.3 million for several human iPSC initiatives, including tissue sample collection, iPSC derivation, and biobanking. The initiative will establish an iPSC biobank in California that will be broadly accessible by researchers worldwide.
It also recently announced $40 million in funding for projects combining stem cell research with genomics research resources.