In a world where space is equated with prestige, California stem-cell researchers are going to be getting a lot more of it. The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine has just awarded $270 million dollars for buildings to institutions all over the state. These funds will be matched by even more than that amount by other donors.

Here is some coverage of this boon to scientific buildings.

The San Diego Tribune consistently does a nice job; this article focuses on the $43 million coming in locally. Another is more general.

The San Francisco Chronicle splashed it over much of its front page and seemed to me to do the best job of covering the impact on California.

The New York Times gave it a mere 600 words, and I couldn’t find it in the LA Times.

And of course, Nature had a full article on CIRM and the national impact on stem-cell science last week. ( See my ramblings and links )

I’d pulled clips on government investment in infrastructure several weeks ago (I thought I’d have time to write in-depth on this but haven’t), and I was surprised to discover that government really doesn’t traditionally invest that much in infrastructure. CIRM is limited to spending 10% of its funds for construction.

I found a lot of skepticism on academic construction in general but haven’t done much reporting. CIRM quotes Paul Berg saying that the hardest problem for people getting into stem cell research is the lack of facilities. Back in February, the head of the Buck told me that if they got the funds to construct a new building for stem cell research, they’d have little trouble filling it with scientists. ( The Buck got $20.5 million to fund the $41 million building.)

Here’s an article from the Economist on whether better facilities for universities are a good idea. (It does not address stem cells particularly, and you’ll need a subscription.) Journalist Dan Greenburg has also written on the unprecedented era of laboratory construction going on. Here’s a recent, statistics filled pdf on college construction.