April 26, 2024

Disbursing stem cell boodle

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will soon have US$3 billion to spend — but it is already having trouble handing out the loot. One grant application has been withdrawn by the applicant and another grant rescinded by the CIRM after further investigation. One recipient, the CHA Regenerative Medicine Institute of Los Angeles, has turned down a $2.6 million grant following allegations of plagiarism. Another grant for $638,000 was approved, but a last-minute administrative check found that the principal investigator was not an on-site, full-time employee, as stipulated by the CIRM. Critics of the CIRM blame its secretive grant-award process for the mistakes.