Rich Donors Help Calif. Fund Stem Cell Research

LOS ANGELES -- Two years after California voters passed a landmark $3 billion bond measure for stem cell research, not a single bond has been sold and not a penny of bond money has been spent. The fund is caught up in court challenges.

But remarkably, the private sector has stepped in to fill the gap with almost unprecedented contributions to state government.

This fall, affluent Californians gave $31 million to the state agency that doles out grants for stem cell research, allowing it to begin functioning. Private money is also building new stem cell labs on university campuses across the state. Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad gave $25 million to the University of Southern California for a stem cell institute, sound-technology pioneer Ray Dolby gave $16 million to the University of California at San Francisco, and local donors are contributing to a $75 million expansion at the University of California at Davis.

"I was amazed by the number of wealthy Californians who have stepped up and decided to support a public agency," said Owen Witte, director of the new...