Stem cells charge ahead

January 30, 2009 – 10:44 am by Michael Christel

If you want to jump into the stem cell research debate, this is the time to do it. The plot has indeed thickened. Just three days after a new administration took the reins in Washington, FDA approved the first ever clinical trial of a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells. In the days since, stem cell sentiment has flowed freely from the industry and scientific community, many excited at the new prospects in treating disease, others preaching caution.

Proponents are optimistic that Geron’s “all-clear� to inject eight to 10 spinal-cord patients with its stem cell drug (the company expects to launch the trial this summer) will help ignite policy change in the United States. President Obama, when he gets around to it (he has his hands full right now, don’t you think?), is expected to lift the seven-year ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a move sure to rile the Vatican and religious right.

“This is what we’ve all been waiting for,” Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology told The Washington Post recently. “The field desperately needs a big clinical success. It’s very important to show the naysayers that this is very real, and hopefully it will start helping people.”

The same report notes, however, that some researchers question the wisdom of targeting spinal cord injuries in the first human stem cell study.

“The nervous system would appear to be one of the most challenging and daunting tissues for cell replacement therapy,” said Arnold Kriegstein of the University of California at San Francisco. “We have to be prepared for modest benefits and watch carefully for any adverse effects.”

Meanwhile, other stem cell companies have released breaking news of their own recently. The International Stem Cell Corporation, or ISCO, which claims to be the first company to perfect a method of creating human “parthenogenetic� stem cells from unfertilized eggs, is planning preclinical trials on human corneal epithelial cells. ISCO says these trials will hopefully pave the way for FDA-approved clinical studies to test the efficacy of using ISCO cells to improve healing after laser eye surgery.

Last week, the UK Stem Cell Foundation announced that a new therapy to potentially restore vision to patients with corneal blindness will be tested in a first-of-its-kind clinical trial in Scotland. The study was set to begin this month. That news came only days after British company ReNeuron and the University of Glasgow received UK regulatory approval to conduct the first stem cell clinical trial for stroke patients.