Stem cell grant OKd for L.A. center linked to allegations

California's voter-created stem cell institute approved a $2.6-million grant earlier this month to a Los Angeles-based research center whose founding president, a South Korean fertility expert, is embroiled in an international dispute over authorship of a medical journal article.

In addition, the medical director of an associated fertility clinic in the same location faces allegations of having an improper sexual relationship with a patient and lying to her about the number of eggs he had collected from her. The clinic and the research center are owned by the same parent company.

Critics of the closed-door grant reviews arranged by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine say the decision is a reason to open the process more to public scrutiny. "Had everyone known that a grant was being discussed to that organization, things would have gone slower and questions would have been raised then," said John Simpson of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica.

The CHA Regenerative Medicine Institute in L.A. applied for the grant to try to develop a line of human embryonic stem cells that...