SAN DIEGO -- The Moores UC San Diego Cancer Center has been awarded a four-year, $20 million state grant to develop drugs that would thwart leukemia stem cells, it was announced Wednesday.

The grant was among $250 million awarded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was created to oversee the allocation of $3 billion in voter-approved bond money for stem cell research in the state.

"This award will fund a team -- including researchers from disparate disciplines and key industry-academic partners -- to develop novel therapies targeting leukemia stem cells, with the goal of moving to clinical trials in the shortest possible time frame," said Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director of the Cancer Stem Cell Research Program at Moores UCSD Cancer Center.

The Moores UCSD Cancer Center will collaborate with a Canadian research tem lead by pioneering leukemia stem cell scientist John Dick, at the University of Toronto. Researchers discovered a type of leukemia stem cell in 2008 and hope to develop therapies that stop them from growing into mature cancer cells.