The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state's stem-cell agency, has awarded $271 million to 12 institutions to seed a building boom of research facilities across the state.

The awards were made at the CIRM's 7 May meeting. The largest, $44 million, went to Stanford University in Palo Alto; the smallest, $3 million, went to the University of California, Santa Barbara. Every University of California campus except Riverside received an award, as did the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato; the University of Southern California in Los Angeles; and a consortium of four San Diego institutions called the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine (see Nature 453, 18–21; 2008).

California institutions hope the new facilities, scheduled to be completed in two years, will help them recruit more scientific talent. The new buildings will be a boon for scientists working on human embryonic stem cells, but will also aid those studying other aspects of regenerative medicine, such as adult stem cells and immunology.