StemCells Inc., of Newark, Calif., said the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine approved the firm's application of a planning grant of $100.000, which will help fund the development of human neural stem cell product HuCNS-SC cells in Alzheimer's disease by enabling StemCells and its collaborators at the University of California, Irvine, to prepare and submit for a Disease Team Therapy Development Research Award, which could bring the firm up to $20 million over four years to support preclinical and investigational new drug application-enabling activities.