California's stem cell agency is making discount-for-cash offers to some research institutions seeking millions of dollars in building grants. The finance scheme, leaders of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine believe, will allow the quasi-public agency to stretch its money further, directing $274 million toward building 12 embryonic stem cell research facilities. That includes structures at Stanford University; the University of California, San Francisco; UC Berkeley; and the Buck Institute for Age Research in Novato. The CIRM funds would set off an estimated $832 million stem-cell research building boom -- the largest outlay of cash for stem cell facilities ever -- over the next two-plus years. The hope, CIRM backers say, is that therapies and tests for a wide range of health issues, from spinal cord injuries to Alzheimer's disease, reach human clinical trials within seven years.

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