"CEO Thomas Okarma of Geron Corp., which paid for the research that developed human embryonic stem cells, spoke next. Geron is working on seven different advanced cell types derived from embryonic stem cells, including islet cells for producing insulin for curing diabetes, neuronal cells for repairing damaged spinal cords, dopaminergic cells for replacing brain cells lost to Parkinson's disease, and cardiomyocytes for replacing tissues damaged by heart attacks.
Okarma showed us a video of a mouse whose spinal cord had been damaged, but which could walk because it had been repaired using human neurons derived from embryonic stem cells. Okarma favors research in both adult and embryonic stem cells, but argues that only embryonic stem cells offer the possibility of large-scale clinical use. Why? Because, unlike adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells can be multiplied without limit. Okarma outlined how a line of embryonic stem cells might be used to treat thousands of people—first, patients would be chimerized (share cells from two different genetic sources) by transplanting bone marrow stem cells into them. This procedure could induce immunological tolerance so that when the neuronal stem cells are transplanted from the same genetic line of stem cells, the patients' bodies would not reject them. Such patients would not have to use immuno-suppressant drugs like other transplant patients must. Okarma boldly predicted that clinical trials for transplanting human embryonic stem cells in patients would begin within the next two years.
Because embryonic stem cell research is under threat here in the United States, Geron has established a lab in the United Kingdom, where stem cell research is welcomed. Okarma did complain, however, that Geron didn't feel very welcome, because Britain's Human Embryology and Fertilisation Authority took 18 months to approve the company's research proposals. In the meantime, Geron has used private funds to already begin deriving new embryonic stem cell lines at Stanford University."
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