Californians voted to support stem cell research 20 years ago. Now we’re building on what we’ve created through the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Their initial $3 billion investment through Proposition 71 paved the way for voters to approve Proposition 14 in 2020. That added another $5.5 billion to advance the science.
CIRM will look back on the past two decades, highlighting early research that has progressed into potential therapies, the growing workforce trained in stem cell science, the expanding biotechnology sector focused on regenerative medicine, and more.
This article is part of a series examining major milestones and metrics from CIRM’s first 20 years.
New businesses and clinical trials
CIRM’s 20th Anniversary Annual Report presents key metrics at a glance, highlighting more than 50 new businesses rooted in CIRM‑funded research and 108 clinical trials advancing with CIRM support (113 as of March 2025).
When the agency launched in 2004, federal stem cell funding was limited to a small number of hard‑to‑access, low‑quality stem cell lines. The field held promise, but too few scientists worked with stem cells, too few appropriate stem cell lines existed, and researchers lacked the knowledge to grow stem cells into disease‑treating cell types.
CIRM’s earliest investments targeted these barriers, enabling the progress that led to today’s new companies and clinical trials. A timeline in the Anniversary Annual Report illustrates this evolution.
Building the regenerative medicine field
CIRM’s first decade focused on building the infrastructure and community needed for regenerative medicine to grow. The agency funded training programs for graduate students; internships for high school, undergraduate, and master’s students; support for young faculty launching stem cell labs; new facilities for the expanding research community; and early‑ and mid‑stage studies that built the foundation for future therapies.
In 2014, ten years after CIRM’s launch, a team led by Donald Kohn, MD, at UCLA delivered the first successful CIRM‑funded stem cell therapy. Their gene‑therapy approach cured a child with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), also known as “bubble boy” disease.
Since then, CIRM has continued to fund scientists and projects that sustain a strong research pipeline. The agency has added programs to support clinical trials, help patients access those trials, guide scientists from ideas to therapies, and provide the tools and resources needed to speed commercialization of new treatments.
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