California’s stem cell agency has approved $250 million in grants with the help of two other medical research agencies.

The grants go to 14 agencies, including Stanford University, which won $52 million, and the University of California, Los Angeles, which will receive $49 million.

CIRM, or the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, worked with the Medical Research Council, UK, which gave $8 million, and with the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium, Canada, which gave $35 million.

The grants are aimed at speeding up the discovery of stem cell treatments. Alan Trounson, president of CIRM, said the money will help cut the time it takes for a therapy to make it to clinical trials. That usually takes a “decade or more” he said.

Some grants awarded locally go to:

• Sangamo Biosciences of Richmond, which will spend $14.6 million along with the City of Hope treatment center near Los Angeles.
• Researchers Jefferey Bluestone and Mitchel Berger of UC San Francisco, who get $19 million to split with Webster Cavenee of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

To date, Stanford has been awarded $163 million in CIRM grants for 42 projects. UCSF has gotten $122 million for 32 projects, UC Davis $49 million for 15 projects, and UC Berkeley $35 million for 10 projects.