To be built specifically for stem cell research, the buildings are expected to be a draw for researchers outside California whose work is hindered by the lack of federal support. Indeed, researchers working with human embryonic stem cells are restricted from using federally funded facilities or equipment in any work with stem cell lines created after Aug. 9, 2001.

Stanford University received the Institute's biggest award, $43.57 million, which it will combine with $156.4 million from donors and university coffers to build a four-floor, 200,000-sf building to be located on the south side of the medical school along Campus Drive. Designed by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca, it will bring together under a single roof researchers working with adult, embryonic, cancer and reprogrammed stem cells that currently are spread between buildings on campus and an off-campus satellite lab.

The University of California at San Francisco will receive approximately $34.9 million from the Institute. It will combine the grant it with $100 million from its own coffers to construct a 74,000-sf building off Medical Center Way on its Parnassus campus, which has not seen a new research facility since the mid-1960s. The building is being designed by Rafael Viñoly of New York.

Nine other state universities received grants from the Institute, as well as Buck Institute for Age Research and the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. The facilities grants mark CIRM's sixth round of funding. Previous grants have gone to postdoctoral researchers, scientists just starting stem cell projects, established stem cell researchers, new faculty and shared research spaces.