Broad Foundation has announced $25 million for stem cell research. Eli and Edythe Broad announced Wednesday that they will donate $25 million to UC San Francisco for a state-of-the-art laboratory.
They said that the laboratory would bring together some of the world’s leading scientists in the field. The Broad Foundation earlier gave $30 million to USC and $20 million to UCLA to boost stem cell research there.
Eli Broad, who made fortunes in home construction and insurance, said the donation from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation was designed to accelerate research in an area that could lead to major medical breakthroughs.
Many scientists believe that human embryonic stem cells, which can develop into any of the 200 cell types in the human body, hold great promise. But opponents argue that using such cells destroys human life because they are derived from human embryos created during in vitro fertilization.
In one incident, two new stem cell lines developed by a UC San Francisco researcher were destroyed during a Bay Area power outage.
