The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the UK and Canada in total announced more than $250 million to 14 multidisciplinary teams of researchers in California, the UK and Canada to develop stem cell-based therapies for 11 diseases.  Consul-General Dame Barbara Hay was honoured to represent the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the UK in announcing an international partnership with CIRM to award over $44 million to researchers collaborating in the UK and California to develop stem cell-based therapies.  

CIRM and MRC funding will support two research projects.  The first project is lead by University College London Professor Pete Coffey and University of Southern California Professor Mark Humayun to identify an effective treatment for Age-related Macular Degeneration.  The second project is lead by University of Oxford Professor Paresh Vyas and Stanford University Professor Irving Weissman to develop therapeutic antibodies to target Human Acute Myeloid Leukaemia stem cells. 

Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Chief Executive of the MRC: “The partnerships that have been established between the UK and CIRM have brought us closer to delivering the promise of clinical trials, eventually leading to a direct benefit for people suffering from age-related macular degeneration, which up until now has been regarded as incurable and also acute myeloid leukaemia.  The MRC has led the way for UK translational researchers and together with our partners at CIRM we look forward to realising the full potential of stem cell research.” 

MRC was founded in 1913, its researchers have been the driving force behind a stream of remarkable advances that have transformed medicine and delivered health improvements to people all over the world.  MRC funded researchers have won 29 Nobel Prizes, with the most recent announced in September of this year. 

The MRC also funds the UK Stem Cell Bank which was the world’s first national resource for human stem cell lines, established in 2004, and provides ethically-sourced and quality controlled lines for researchers, both within the UK and internationally. 

CIRM is a California state agency established in early 2005 following the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.  The mission of CIRM is to support and advance stem cell research and regenerative medicine under the highest ethical and medical standards for the discovery and development of cures, therapies, diagnostics and research technologies to relieve human suffering from chronic disease and injury.

The MRC and CIRM have a strong, well-established relationship built over a number of years under the umbrella of the International Stem Cell Forum.  The Science and Innovation Teams at the British Consulates-General of San Francisco and Los Angeles have been engaged with CIRM since its inception and were key in developing the UK-California relationship and bringing forward these awards.

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