CIRM targets patients, advocates to carry its message

True believers in stem cell research — patients and patient advocacy groups — are being recruited by California’s stem cell research funding agency to spread the gospel as officials consider asking voters to support another multibillion-dollar bond issue.
Whether the campaign by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine results in a new bond measure to supplement the $3 billion guarantee provided by Proposition 71’s passage in 2004 is an open question. Leaders of the San Francisco-based agency say they have not decided whether to ask voters to extend funding past 2017, when Prop. 71 money stops.
One thing, however, is sure: Many patients, advocacy groups and scientific researchers are eager to become both preacher and choir.