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A state agency kicked off one of the world’s largest stem cell banks Monday in an effort to bolster research and develop therapies for some of the most mysterious yet common diseases, from autism to lung disease.

The new bank at the Buck Institute in Novato will offer up vials of skin or blood cells transformed into what is known as induced pluripotent stem cells from more than 3,000 individual cell donors via an online storefront.

The goal is to streamline the process of getting stem cells to researchers, in order to advance understanding and find treatments for 11 varying diseases.

“We wanted to look at diseases that are problematic,” said Kevin McCormack, director of public communications for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state’s stem cell agency. “One of the reasons that we have made so much progress with cancer is because you can biopsy a tumor, but with the live brain you can’t do that.”

McCormack said that with these induced pluripotent stem cells, researchers can transform a person’s skin or blood cells into other cells, such...