For week three of the Month of CIRM, our topic is infrastructure. What is infrastructure? Read on for a big-picture overview, and then we’ll fill in the details over the course of the week.

When CIRM was created in 2001, our goal was to grow the stem cell research field in California. But to do that, we first had to build some actual buildings. Since then, our infrastructure programs have taken many forms, but all have been focused on a single mission: accelerating the translation of stem cell research to patients with unmet medical needs.

Protecting science

In the early 2000’s, stem cell scientists faced a quandary. President George W. Bush had placed limits on how federal funds could be used for embryonic stem cell research. His policy allowed funding of research involving some existing embryonic stem cell lines, but banned research that developed or conducted research on new stem lines.

Many researchers felt the existing lines were of poor quality and could only be used in a limited capacity. But because they depended on government funding, they had no choice but to comply. Scientists who chose to use non-approved lines couldn’t use their federally funded labs for stem cell work.

Major Facilities Grants

The creation of CIRM changed that. In 2008, CIRM launched its Major Facilities Grant Program. The program had two major goals:

1) To accommodate the growing numbers of stem cell researchers coming to California as a result of CIRM’s grants and funding.

2) To provide new research space that didn’t have to comply with the federal restrictions on stem cell research.

Over the next few years, the program invested $ 271 million to help build 12 new research facilities across California, from Sacramento to San Diego. The institutions used CIRM’s funding to leverage and attract an additional $543 million in private donor and institutional funding to construct and furnish the buildings.

These world-class laboratories gave scientists the research space they needed to work with any stem cell they wanted and to develop new therapies. It also enabled the institutions to bring all the stem cell researchers who had previously been scattered across campuses under one roof.

Economic impact

Another important benefit was the work these buildings provided to thousands of construction workers during a time of record unemployment in the industry. Here’s a video about the 12 facilities we helped build:

But building physical facilities was just our first foray into developing infrastructure. We were far from finished.

In the early days of stem cell research, many scientists used cells from different sources, created using different methods. This made it hard to compare results from one study to another. So, in 2013 CIRM created an iPSC Repository, a kind of high-tech stem cell bank. The repository collected tissue samples from people who have different diseases, turned those samples into high-quality stem cell lines – the kind known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) – and then made those samples available to researchers around the world. This not only gave researchers a powerful resource for developing a deeper understanding of different diseases, but because the scientists used the same cell lines, their findings could be compared.

Alpha Network

That same year, we also launched a plan to create a new statewide network of clinics specializing in stem cell treatments. The goal of the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network is to support and accelerate clinical trials for programs funded by the agency, academic researchers, or industry. Because stem cell therapies are a completely new way to treat diseases and disorders, we needed a new way to deliver treatments safely and effectively.

The network began with three clinics – UC San Diego, UCLA/UC Irvine, and City of Hope – but at our last Board meeting, it was expanded to five with the addition of UC Davis and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. This network will help the clinics streamline challenging processes such as enrolling patients, managing regulatory procedures, and sharing data, and will speed the testing and distribution of experimental stem cell therapies. We will be posting a more detailed blog post tomorrow about how our Alpha Clinics are advancing innovative stem cell treatments.

Translational science

As the field advanced, we realized researchers needed help moving their work from the lab into clinical trials. Many excelled at science but had little experience navigating the complex FDA process required to begin a trial.

Our Agency created the Translating and Accelerating Centers to address that gap. The Translating Center helped researchers complete the preclinical work needed for FDA approval. The Accelerating Center then helped them launch and run the clinical trial.

Quintiles IMS won both awards, so we combined the two programs into one: The Stem Cell Center. It became a one‑stop resource to help researchers move promising treatments into people.

There’s more to the story, of course — including the Genomics Initiative — but it’s hard to fit 13 years into a short blog. And we’re not done. We’re still looking for better ways to improve our work. We are a work in progress and determined to keep pushing forward.