CIRM Awards $9 Million to Enloe Health for Cell and Gene Therapy Center

San Diego, Calif., Sept. 25, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded $9 million to Enloe Health in Chico, California, to establish a Community Care Center of Excellence (CCCE) that will bring advanced cell and gene therapies closer to patients in Northern California. This initiative, part of CIRM’s ongoing efforts to make cutting-edge medical treatments more accessible, is expected to launch by January 2027.

The CCCE will focus on delivering approved CAR-T therapies and participating in clinical trials for conditions such as blood cancers, autoimmune diseases, and rare genetic diseases. Enloe Health will connect people in Chico and surrounding communities with FDA-approved therapies, clinical trials, patient support resources, and workforce training opportunities. The center will work with community partners to address informational, economic, and social barriers that can prevent people from participating in research.

CIRM launched the CCCE program in 2025 as a first-of-its-kind effort to make regenerative medicine therapies and clinical trials more accessible for Californians who live far from major medical centers. CIRM’s first CCCEs received $27 million to establish sites serving South L.A., the Inland Empire and Desert Region, and the Central Valley. These sites, along with nine Alpha Clinics, form CIRM’s Clinical Network, which aims to bring advanced therapies and clinical trials within a 1.5-hour drive for roughly 9 out of 10 Californians.

The Clinical Network site at Enloe Health will be part of CIRM’s broader mission to ensure that all Californians, regardless of location or background, have access to advanced cell and gene therapies and clinical trials. CIRM was created by the people of California to fund stem cell and gene therapy research with the goal of accelerating treatments for patients with unmet medical needs. With $5.5 billion in funding allocated through both Proposition 71 in 2004 and Proposition 14 in 2020, CIRM supports stem cell and gene therapy discoveries from inception through clinical trials, trains a workforce in California to fill jobs in the state’s thriving biotech and biomedical research industry, and creates infrastructure to make clinical trials accessible for people throughout California.

By expanding CIRM’s Clinical Network to include a site in Northern California, the organization is helping bring clinical trial opportunities, approved therapies, trusted information, and patient support closer to the communities that need them. This latest CCCE site is a core part of CIRM’s vision of ensuring that all Californians have access to the next generation of therapies.