Enjoying the ride--Vivan las celulas madre!

摘要

Once again, the 12 months that have passed since the last ISSCR meeting have been exciting ones for stem cell research. The scientific progress has been impressive, with important advances in many different areas. Of course I am more than a little biased about the studies that have appeared in Cell Stem Cell itself, but I have been very grateful for the opportunity to present so much exciting new work and discussion to the community in our second year. I hope all of you as our readers have found as much to interest you in our pages as I have.In the United States, we saw an historic election with a result that bodes well for the future of research funding in general and more specifically for the stem cell field, despite difficult economic times. As this issue went to press, the comment period for the new NIH human stem cell research draft guidelines was still open, and we hope that community feedback will help ensure that the final document facilitates current and future progress and avoids the concerns raised by Taylor in his recent Forum article. There is worldwide interest in the new US administration, but as a global journal we are very conscious of the need also to keep track of scientific and regulatory advances occurring in all corners of the world. Some country-specific insights can provide illustrative pointers about approaches that are more broadly applicable (for example, Rugg-Gunn et al., 2009). Others, such as the article from Raya and Izpisua Belmonte in this issue, can serve to illustrate the value of working in a supportive environment. The rationale for the timing of this piece is of course the forthcoming ISSCR annual meeting in Barcelona, although in some ways one could say that the strong support for stem cell research that exists in Spain means that a highlight of it is long overdue.