Ocata Therapeutics Inc fka OCAT

[rumit]

Rocky and all,

That is my understanding as well, and I am fairly certain this is correct.

Bloomberg article January 2011:

Advanced Cell has developed a technique for plucking an individual cell out of an early embryo when it has only eight cells. That single cell is used to create a line of stem cells and the young embryo can develop normally, Lanza said.

This technique creates stem cells without destroying embryos, an advance that may allow the company to avoid the controversy. A similar method is sometimes used to assess whether embryos that may be used for in vitro fertilization carry any genetic diseases.

While the retinal cells to be used in Advanced Cell’s clinical trials came from a stem-cell line that was created this way, the embryo itself was destroyed because the company was still working on the technique, Lanza said. He and his colleagues have since perfected the process and created new lines of stem cells from embryos that have been frozen and retained, he said.
Discarded Embryo

Because the early clinical testing for the retinal cells was conducted on animals using a cell line from an embryo that was discarded, the company is continuing to use that line for its human testing, Lanza said. Switching to a different line would require extensive new laboratory work to show the FDA that the lines are exactly the same and to develop them under sterile “good manufacturing practice,” or GMP, conditions. If the vision studies pan out and Advanced Cell develops it into a commercial product, the company may do the work and switch.

“We have lines we can convert to GMP conditions,” Lanza said. “We could thaw those tomorrow and scale them up.”

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-03/advanced-cell-technology-cleared-to-test-stem-cell-therapy-for-vision-loss.html?cmpid=yhoo

EDIT: Emphasis added.