This is huge, wonderful news! Geron Corp, the first company to get FDA approval for human trials with cells derived from embryonic stem cells has decided to shut down the trial they started last year and abandon embryonic stem cell research completely. From the NY Times:

The company conducting the world’s first clinical trial of a therapy using human embryonic stem cells said on Monday that it was halting that trial and leaving the stem cell business entirely.

The company, Geron, said that its move did not reflect a lack of promise for the controversial field. Rather, it said, with money scarce, it had decided to focus on its experimental cancer therapies, which are further along in development.

This underscores what many pro-lifers have been saying for years: private investors do not find ESC research to be a promising enough field to put their money into. That should really tell us something. And, yet, more than a few of our congressmen and women would just love to increase the amount of money that you, the taxpayer spend on it!

What about the patients of that first ESC trial? Again from the NYTimes:

So far four patients have been treated. Dr. Scarlett of Geron said that there were “no signs” that the treatment was helping the patients. But that was not expected in the initial trial, which was mainly looking at safety. And so far, he said, there had been no sign of safety problems.

Thank God there were no safety problems – something many of us were concerned about considering ESCs propensity to become cancerous or form deadly tumors and cysts. You want safety and treatments? Adult stem cells have not only been shown safe to use in humans, but have also proven to be effective in treating spinal cord injury (the injury Geron wass hoping to treat in this trial) for several years now, even some with long term injuries (the patients in Geron’s trial have new injuries) – see here, here, here, here, here and here for some examples.

Related:
Goodbye Dolly!