<p>Thirteen years ago, America faced an epidemic of chronic disease: cancer, paralysis, blindness, arthritis, Alzheimer&#39;s disease, diabetes and more.</p><p>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 &mdash; but it defeated them all. And then?</p><p>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.</p><p>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 &mdash; for the first time!</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>Will California build on success &mdash; and invest $5 billion more in stem cell research?</p><p>'We have the momentum', says author Don C Reed, 'We dare not stop short. Chronic disease threatens everyone &mdash; we are fighting for your family, and mine!'</p>