California Cures!

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Thirteen years ago, America faced an epidemic of chronic disease: cancer, paralysis, blindness, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and more.But California voters said "YES!" to a $3 billion stem cell research program: the awkwardly-named California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Born into battle, the scrappy little state agency was immediately blocked by three years of anti-science lawsuits - but it defeated them all. And then?A quiet triumph. With a focused intensity like the Manhattan Project (but for peaceful purposes, not to build a bomb), scientists funded by CIRM took on the challenges: disease and disability called chronic: incurable.In a series of connected stories, accurate though written to entertain, "California Cures" relates a war: science against disease, with lives on the line. Think what it means for a paralyzed young man to recover the use of his hands, or for a formerly-blind mother to see her teenaged children - for the first time!Do you know the "bubble-baby" syndrome? Infants without a proper immune system typically die young, a common cold can kill. But for eighteen babies in a stem cell clinical trial, a different future: they were cured of their disease.No one can predict the pace of science, nor say when cures will come, but California is bringing the fight. The reader will meet the scientists involved, the women and men behind the microscope, and share their struggle.Above all, "California Cures" is a call for action. Washington may argue about the expense of health care (and who will get it), but California works to bring down the mountain of medical debt: stem cell therapies to ease suffering, and save lives.Will California build on success - and invest $5 billion more in stem cell research?"We have the momentum", says author Don C Reed, "We dare not stop short. Chronic disease threatens everyone - we are fighting for your family, and mine!