Head of CIRM, California's stem cell research funding agency, to leave mid-month

Maria Millan, outgoing president and CEO of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

C/o Maria Millan

Maria Millan, who brought stability to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine as the quasi-public stem cell research funding agency neared death then was renewed by taxpayers, will resign as president and CEO effective Nov. 17.

South San Francisco-based CIRM, which has dished out billions of dollars to academic researchers, their institutions and companies over the past 15 years, on Tuesday did not give a reason for Millan's departure. It has not named an interim CEO.

"I am exploring potential paths and have not made a specific commitment yet," Millan said in an email to the San Francisco Business Times.

Millan did not explain the timing of her exit, which comes 10 months after CIRM's 35-member governing board elected Dr. Vita Imbasciani as chair for a six-year term, replacing longtime chair Jonathan Thomas.

At the same time, CIRM has undertaken new initiatives aimed at helping companies develop and manufacture therapies more quickly — like a program to give CIRM-funded companies access to Bayer's new cell therapy facilities in Berkeley — and accelerating the development of therapies for brain diseases.

CIRM's awards budget for the current fiscal year is $464 million, a pace at which the California Stem Cell Report estimated CIRM's funding would run out in 2031.

"She led during a time when the number of clinical trials shot way up, which is great and reflects well on her tenure," Paul Knoepfler, a professor in the cell biology and human anatomy department at the University of California, Davis, said in an email to the Business Times. "CIRM continued to fund important basic research, too.

"Overall, hers are going to be some tough shoes to fill, but I expect there'll be a lot of interest in the position from experienced people, including maybe some with biotech experience," Knoepfler said.

Trained as a transplant surgeon, Millan was inserted as interim CEO after the mid-2017 departure of Randy Mills and eventually was named to the permanent position. She initially joined South San Francisco-based CIRM in 2012 as vice president of therapeutics.

Millan, 59, brought a level of stability to CIRM as the end of its original funding loomed. Voters in 2020 narrowly approved a bond measure to provide an additional $5.5 billion after CIRM's original kitty of $3 billion was nearly exhausted. From that new pot of cash, Millan helped architect a five-year strategic plan, helped expand CIRM's "alpha clinics" network of sites for high-quality stem cell clinical trials and increased the number of clinical trials CIRM has funded to 96.

The clinical trial work represents a near doubling of CIRM's portfolio in less than three years, the agency said.

The latest funding includes $1.5 billion dedicated to research and therapy for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stroke, epilepsy and other brain and central nervous system conditions.

In a CIRM release, Imbasciani said Millan's "vision, passion and tireless efforts have set a standard of excellence that will continue to inspire us at CIRM."

Read Full Article Here