Construction will begin on San Diego's stem cell center this week, now that financing is in place.
The Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine will house stem cell scientists from UCSD and the Burnham, Scripps, and Salk Institutes. The center will be located in La Jolla right next to Salk. It's directors say it will be home to cutting edge research, aimed at curing disease by creating healthy new tissues.
The center got $43 million from California's stem cell research agency. The financial package was finished after UC agreed to guarantee $62 million in bonds.
Ed Holmes, president of the Sanford Consortium, said "To my knowledge there's never been a project like this where the leading scientists, from the leading institutions are going to come together under one roof, to tackle an important problem. So it's a very special day for San Diego also."
Construction on the center will begin Wednesday. It will be built and ready for use in two years.
