Scrutinizing a Stem Cell Trial

Wired News has an interesting discussion of a clinical stem cell trial with the CEO of Geron, a California based stem cell company. The author takes time to discuss some of the process and hurdles that are faced by a company who wishes to engage in early clinical trials. From the article: "After an hour of speaking to Okarma, fears of a half-baked trial dissipated. He readily answered my many questions. If he didn't have the animal data to answer a query, he didn't try to dance around that fact. Okarma outlined a structured but malleable trial. I initially had reservations about safety, but Okarma emphasized that if the animal data is not good, the study will not move forward until problems are addressed."

Comments

Testing on bums

[Eightyford]

I wonder where medical science would be if society allowed more testing on homeless people? (not that I condone that, of course)

Good.

[posterlogo]

It's excellent that there are well balanced articles like this out there. Many tend to follow the anti-science trend that is taking over the US in recent years. Recently, the controversy over patient-specific stem cells has been used to rally the bible-beating troops against the use of embryonic stem cells altogether. Any sort of glance under the surface whatsover would immediately reveal that the scientific process worked exactly as it should, as it will in this clinical trial as well. Frankly, the results in animal models are quite promising, and if this treatment even mereley 'does no harm', I will be quite impressed.