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A stem cell injection bound to create a stir is about to take place. For the first time ever the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (the United States government agency regulating scientific research) has authorized a company to transfer embryonic stem cells to patients paralyzed by spinal trauma. It will be the first procedure of its kind after newly inaugurated President Barack Obama promised to remove limits on financing for embryonic stem cell research imposed by George Bush in 2001.
The details of the initiative are beginning to take form, explained Thomas Okarma, President and CEO of Geron Corporation, the biotechnology company that was given the go ahead by the FDA, speaking in a CNN interview, explaining that volunteer testing will already begin this summer. Eight or ten patients with recent damage to their spinal cord and completely paralyzed from their third to tenth vertebra will be injected with embryonic stem cells. Using totipotent cells manipulated in the lab, researchers have developed cells called oligodendrocytes which play an important role in nerve transmission and are able to rebuild myelin, a protective sheath that covers nerves.
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