It is now official: the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine is soon to be in the publishing business.

The $3 billion state stem cell funding agency announced yesterday that it will partner with AlphaMed Press, the publisher of Stem Cells, to create an online open access journal called Stem Cells Translational Medicine. The journal is to focus on translating stem cell discoveries to clinical applications. The team selected Tony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, to be chief editor.

CIRM is offering up $600,000 to jumpstart the journal. The publication is a first for a US state and is one of a handful that are publically funded, including the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Environmental Health Perspectives.

To read more about the launch of the journal and its implications, read our story in this month’s issue of Nature Medicine.