Daily Lesson from Life 23 January 2009

"OK for 1st stem cell therapy

US BIOTECH firm said it had been cleared to carry out first human trials. -Fri, Jan 23, 2009 AFP

WASHINGTON - US BIOTECH firm Geron Corp announced on Friday it had been cleared to carry out the first human trials using embryonic stem cells, testing the therapy on patients paralysed by spinal-cord injury.


Embryonic stem cells are highly versatile, primitive cells capable of developing into any tissue of the body.
The goal is to inject cells into the spines of paralysed volunteers in the hope that this will prompt damaged nerve cells to regrow, enabling the patients to eventually recover feeling and movement.

'The clearance enables Geron to move forward with the world's first study of a human embryonic stem cell based therapy in man,' Geron said. The company hailed the step as 'the beginning of what is potentially a new chapter in medical therapeutics.'

There was no immediate confirmation of Geron's announcement on the FDA website early on Friday.

The corporation said it had submitted a 21,000-page dossier to the FDA to back up its request for the study, citing evidence that the treatment was effective among lab mice and rats.


The so-called Phase One trial will be conducted among a small group of patients with 'functionally complete' spinal cord injury, mainly to see whether the treatment is safe.

Under a cautious three-phase procedure, two further sets of trials then take place among progressively larger groups to see if the therapy is both effective as well as safe.


Mingled with the excitement over stem-cell therapy has been a grim realisation among many researchers in recent years that the experimental technology faces more obstacles than thought.

The main challenge is how to coax stem cells into 'differentiating' into the desired tissue without becoming tumorous or unleashing a murderous backlash from the body's immune system."

This is a real breakthrough as under President Bush, this type of experiment was NOT allowed on religious ground as unethical. While there is a valid concern that unscrupulous people will simply just kill an embryo to extract the stem cell to so-called save 'life', science just have to be given a chance to move forward. Of course under strict supervision and self-commitment to do the right thing!

Lessons for me are:

1. the creator (no matter what faith you believes in) is slowly revealing the secret of genes to human being. As human being learns more about what make up flesh, blood and body parts, etc, they are closer to learning the creator's full set of knowledge and skills!;

2. those fortunate enough to be at the forefront of this technology MUST have the solid ethical value of: I will do it only under the written rules governing the research methodologies and processes and MORE. The MORE refers to: never compromising life just to prove that one method is better than the competing one with false data and analysis;

3. the society will have to constantly supervise such researches and hold the scientists accountable. It is the check and balance mechanism that work well if everyone participant takes his or her responsibility seriously.

I look forward to the results of such ground breaking experimental treatment and wish all the patients in this study great success!