Stem cell moves

the verge of showing the potential clinical value of embryonic stem cell research. Our research clearly shows that stem-cell-derived retinal cells can rescue visual function in animals that otherwise would have gone blind. We are hopeful that the cells will be similarly efficacious in patients. " The company hopes to start its clinical trial this spring. At a later point, the company also hopes to extend the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in industrialised countries. Four other research groups aiming to develop hES-cell therapies have recently received a funding boost from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) as part of a $250 million award scheme handed to 4 international research teams in the US, Canada, and the UK. CIRM was set up in 2004 as part of Proposition 7, which provided a total of $3 billion in research funding. Meanwhile, researchers investigating the alternative approach using iPS cells have made rapid progress since the discovery that overexpression of a small number of genes in differentiated cells can turn back the clock of development both in mice and men. The original 'four factor' recipe involved the use of a retrovirus dumping the genetic cargo at random places in the genome. To make matters worse, one of the genes The first cultivation of human embryonic stem cells in 998 quickly led to high hopes for regenerative medicine, damped only by ethical concerns prevailing, for instance, in Germany and parts of the USA. Now, however, two companies are in a race to start the first clinical trials of treatments using human embryonic stem (hES) cells, and efforts to create safer and more efficient ways towards induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are also beginning to bear fruit. Initially, it looked as though the company Geron, based at Thousand Oaks, California, would be the first to get clinical trials of hES cells going. The company applied for FDA approval for a trial using hES cells to treat spinal cord injury. However, the trial had to be postponed after cysts were observed in some of the animals on which the method had been tried. In November, Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts, filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the FDA, essentially asking permission for a clinical trial of a treatment using hES cells to cure Stargardt's macular dystrophy, which leads to blindness and has remained incurable so …