The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) yesterday announced awards worth $72 million to fund stem cell researchers in the state in a second series of grants meant to move experimental stem cell treatments into the clinic (press release).

Last year, in the initiative’s first round, the state stem cell agency funded 14 researchers to the tune of $230 million (see our coverage here).

At a meeting of the agency’s 29-member board yesterday, 19 grants worth $67 million were approved, mostly to researchers at California academic institutions, each of whom received awards ranging from $1.7 million to $6.7 million. There’s also one biotech company, San Francisco-based iPerian, in the mix. Another $4.8 million award went to aid in recruiting Peter Coffey from the University College London to the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Funded by $3 billion in bonds OK’ed by California voters in 2004, CIRM has $1.6 billion remaining in its coffers. Last week, at a three-day meeting held largely behind closed doors, a blue-ribbon panel conducted a comprehensive assessment of the agency’s activities to date. Its conclusions will be released in December.