Geron bails out of stem cells

摘要

Geron, the company that helped pioneer human embryonic stem (hES) cell research, said this week that it is stopping its first-in-the-world clinical trial and pulling out of further stem cell work. The Menlo Park, California-based company will instead concentrate on its anti-cancer therapies. Geron helped to fund the work of James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin, who in 1998 was the first to isolate hES cells (Science, 6 November 1998, p. 1145). The trial, launched last year, was designed to treat eight patients with spinal cord injury using neuronal cells derived from hES cells.