Thursday, January 13, 2005

CIRM Waits on National Research Standards

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is waiting on national research guidelines before beginning the process of making grants -- guidelines that may be in place in April.

The timetable was disclosed in an
article by Carl T. Hall in today's (Jan. 13) San Francisco Chronicle. Hall quoted Robert Klein, chairman of the CIRM oversight committee as saying he never meant to set a "firm" May deadline for dispensing funds. Klein said the agency would not issue grants until the best standards were in place.

Hall wrote, "Klein is counting on a comprehensive set of stem cell guidelines from the prestigious National Academies, an independent research organization in Washington, D.C., to help speed things along."

The organization said the standards will not be ready at least until April. Presumably those standards would be adopted on an interim basis by CIRM, triggering the first grant cycle. Then the agency would have 270 days to adopt final rules.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Search This Blog