As California wrestles with a horrendous budget deficit, the axe hangs over almost every area of state spending, from welfare to education. But there is one activity set for healthy growth: stem cell research.

Dozens of new laboratories are being fitted out and hundreds of scientists recruited. The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine - set up in 2004, when a referendum ap- proved $3bn of state spending on the research - is moving ahead after delays caused by legal challenges and uncertainties over selling the state bonds that will fund it. About $1bn (€700m, £600m) has been committed in research grants and spending on labs and other infrastructure, according to Alan Trounson, CIRM president.