Mike Prawicki

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Posts Tagged davis

CIRM awards $250 million for stem cell research

Oct 28

Posted by Mike Prawicki in Health, News | No Comments

California’s stem cell agency has approved $250 million in grants with the help of two other medical research agencies.

The grants go to 14 agencies, including Stanford University, which won $52 million, and the University of California, Los Angeles, which will receive $49 million.

CIRM, or the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, worked with the Medical Research Council, UK, which gave $8 million, and with the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium, Canada, which gave $35 million.

The grants are aimed at speeding up the discovery of stem cell treatments. Alan Trounson, president of CIRM, said the money will help cut the time it takes for a therapy to make it to clinical trials. That usually takes a “decade or more” he said.

Some grants awarded locally go to:

  • Sangamo Biosciences of Richmond, which will spend $14.6 million along with the City of Hope treatment center near Los Angeles.
  • Researchers Jefferey Bluestone and Mitchel Berger of UC San Francisco, who get $19 million to split with Webster Cavenee of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

To date, Stanford has been awarded $163 million in CIRM grants for 42 projects. UCSF has gotten $122 million for 32 projects, UC Davis $49 million for 15 projects, and UC Berkeley $35 million for 10 projects.

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‘Clunkers’ Program Is Expensive Way to Cut Carbon Emissions

Aug 14

Posted by Mike Prawicki in News, Politics | No Comments

Photo: old truck
Economist Chris Knittel says under the “Cash for Clunker” program, the lowest cost to remove one ton of carbon from the environment was $237

New UC Davis estimates say the federal government’s Cash for Clunkers program is paying at least 10 times the “sticker price” to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

While carbon credits are projected to sell in the U.S. for about $28 per ton (today’s price in Europe was $20), even the best-case calculation of the cost of the clunkers rebate is $237 per ton, said UC Davis transportation economist Christopher Knittel.

“When burned, a gallon of gasoline creates roughly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. I combined that known value with an average rebate of $4,200 and a range of assumptions about the fuel economy of the new vehicles purchased and how long the clunkers would have been on the road if not for the program,” Knittel said. “I even assumed drivers didn’t change their habits, although some analysts have suggested that the owners of new vehicles will drive more than they would have with their old cars.

“In the end, the lowest cost to remove one ton of carbon from the environment was $237. More likely scenarios produced a cost of more than $500 per ton, even when we accounted for reductions in pollutants other than greenhouse gases. That suggests the Cash for Clunkers program is an expensive way to reduce carbon.”

Knittel did not analyze the program’s other key objectives: stimulating the economy and providing relief for automobile manufacturers.

Knittel is an associate professor and chancellor’s fellow in the UC Davis Department of Economics, a faculty associate at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, and the policy and business strategy leader of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways Program at UC Davis.

His analysis, titled “The Implied Cost of Carbon Dioxide Under the Cash for Clunkers Program,” was published online today (Aug. 13) by the University of California Energy Institute. It was funded by the Energy Institute and the Institute of Transportation Studies.

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California Court Allows Disabled Student to Take Bar

Jul 29

Posted by Mike Prawicki in News, Politics | No Comments

About a week after the California State Bar refused to allow a disabled law student to take the bar exam, claiming registration problems, the student received last-minute approval for the test on Monday from the State Supreme Court.

The student, Sara Granda, graduated from the University of California, Davis, law school in May and has been cramming for the big test ever since, while also arranging accommodation for her handicap. Ms. Granda was paralyzed from the neck down after an automobile accident in July 1997, and breathes with the help of a ventilator. She earned her degree with the help of state-paid aides, including one who took dictation during classes.

She completed the complex negotiation with the state bar over the accommodation for the test, but this month, the bar told her that she had not properly registered by the June 15 deadline and could not take the test, which begins Tuesday.

The online registration for the exam requires that the approximately $600 fee be paid for with a credit card. The state paid Ms. Granda’s fee as part of her disability support, a fact that she said she had confirmed with the bar. But Ms. Granda, who is 29, lives on disability benefits and has no credit card, and so the application was not processed.

The case, which has been followed closely by The Sacramento Bee, had drawn the attention of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who sent a letter to the Supreme Court on Monday.

“The system needs to be flexible enough to accommodate extraordinary individuals like Sara Granda,” Mr. Schwarzenegger wrote. “I hope that you allow Ms. Granda a chance to achieve the goal that she has pursued with such incredible devotion.”

The court’s order was made without explanation.

Gail Murphy, a bar association official, said applicants whose fees were paid by a state agency normally asked for the forms on paper and could arrange for the association to bill the agency. The law governing the exam, Ms. Murphy said, “does not give us discretion to accept applications past the deadline.”

Speaking on Monday from her apartment, where an aide was helping her study, Ms. Granda said she wanted desperately to get on with her new career.

“I’m sick of being on public assistance,” she said, adding that she would rather be a taxpayer than a tax recipient.

“I want to work,” she said. “To have this hinge on something so trivial seems crazy.”

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