A New Stage

The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine has a new strategic plan, reports the Nature News Blog. For the next five years, CIRM will shift its focus away from basic research toward clinical applications. "The first stage of CIRM was really exploring the field," says Ellen Feigal, the institute's senior vice president of R&D. "The next five years should be one of more focus." Nature adds that three-fifths of CIRM's $840 million budget for the next five years will go to clinical development research while the rest will fund basic and translational research.