California officials may investigate potential conflicts of interest in the state's $3-billion stem-cell initiative.

State Controller John Chiang has asked for the Fair Political Practices Committee to look into accusations against Robert Klein, the chairman, and John Reed, a board member, of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in San Francisco. A public advocacy group has also called for both to resign after it emerged that Reed, on Klein's advice, asked the CIRM to reconsider a grant decision involving a researcher at the Burnham Institute in La Jolla.

Reed is president of the Burnham Institute and intervened after the CIRM decided to rescind a previously awarded $638,000 grant to a researcher who was not an on-site, full-time employee of the Burnham Institute.

Klein says he now realizes that Reed should never have written the letter, and that he looks forward to the investigation. ?We welcome guidance so that we can learn,? he says.