CIRM awards $69 million in stem cell research grants targeting 'bubble boy' syndrome, other diseases

Bay Area stem cell researchers looking to cure a "bubble boy" syndrome, fix damaged heart muscle and take on a host of other diseases grabbed more than $25 million in funding from California's stem cell research funding agency.

The San Francisco-based California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, said it awarded a total of $69.4 million to California stem cell scientists. Those projects include the first CIRM-funded collaboration in China and the first project with the Australian federal government.

Seven awards went to three Bay Area institutions: Stanford University, theUniversity of California, San Francisco, and the Gladstone Institutes.