In regenerative medicine (and many other fields), a lack of protocol standardization and analytical toolkits makes it difficult to access novel, reliable technology platforms.

Competency hubs

CIRM recognizes these limitations, and as a response, the Agency has made it a goal in the “Prop 14 era” to develop next-generation competency hubs that empower and connect California’s research ecosystem.

One example of such competency hubs is the shared labs. Shared labs aren’t new to CIRM. In fact, CIRM has awarded 17 shared research laboratory grants to academic and nonprofit research institutions to provide lab space for innovative stem cell research and training.

CIRM will expand this shared lab model by creating networks of specialized competency hubs that offer knowledge and/or materials in cell and gene therapy development. These hubs will encourage collaborations and provide intra- and inter-institutional access to various competencies by sharing facilities, training, equipment, materials, protocols, and/or expertise.

Disease modeling

For example, a disease modeling competency hub would provide access to innovative disease models, collaborative researchers, shared research facilities, equipment, and training programs for deriving or differentiating cell lines. These collaborative environments would encourage researchers to work together using a team-science approach, which would significantly accelerate discovery and therapy development.

Some of these hubs will also serve as a workforce training program for local and neighboring institutions. Most California state universities and community colleges lack the financial and experiential bandwidth for innovative research. They may, however, harbor a potentially diverse future workforce who could learn these techniques and use the technology platforms for small-scale research. Training may also spark the future workforce’s interest in pursuing regenerative medicine.  

The competency hubs will also constitute part of the CIRM collaborative ecosystem, making all their data available through the CIRM data infrastructure hub, also known as CIRM knowledge networks.

Finally, the network of competency hubs will greatly benefit Californians by expanding geographic access to diverse communities and giving researchers a unique opportunity to access state-of-the-art platforms.

Visit this page to learn more about CIRM’s new 5-year Strategic Plan, and stay tuned as we share progress updates on our 5-year goals here on the Stem Cellar.