Created in 2014 through a $40 million award by California's stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the Center of Excellence in Stem Cell Genomics is spearheading the investigation into how stem cells can be used to treat disease.

This Center merges the genomics expertise of the Stanford University research team under the seasoned leadership of Mike Snyder, with the cutting edge expertise of the Salk Institute and University of California, San Diego groups in epigenomics, led by Joseph Ecker. These two leaders in the field of genomics have extensive experience working on large-scale projects and have been working in national and international consortia for generating and distributing genomics data.  This Center of Excellence also includes the experience of Josh Stuart and David Haussler, leaders in data coordination and management, from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), extending collaborative relationships that have been developed over the past decade.