After seeing an ambitious $3 billion effort to back stem cell research get tied up in court, California's Institute for Regenerative Medicine finally got on track with the announcement of 72 research grants totaling $45 million for the next two years. Next month the state is expected to announce $80 million in grants, a move that will make it the single largest backer of embryonic stem cell work in the nation, far outstripping the limited federal support that flows to the field. The money is coming from both private sources and state borrowing. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced last year that he would lend $150 million to the institute to begin its work.
- see the release on the grants
- here's the report on the initiative from the San Francisco Chronicle
ALSO: New York lawmakers, meanwhile, have expressed a cool attitude to Governor Eliot Spitzer's proposal to raise $2 billion to back stem cell research projects. Report