The Californian Company, Asterias Biotherapeutics, has been authorised by the FDA[1]to carry out a clinical trial using human Embryo Stem Cells (hESC). This is a phase I clinical trial[2]. Scientists want to transplant neuronal precursors obtained from hESCs to 13 patients with spinal cord injury.
This trial is, in actual fact, a resumption of that interrupted by the Californian biotechnology company, Geron, in November 2011(cf. Gènéthique vous informe du 1er novembre 2011). It is financed by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), one of the companies initially financing the first Geron trial(cf. Gènéthique du 28 mai 2014).
[1] Food and Drug Administration
[2]A phase 1 trial studies treatment safety and tolerability.
Observatorio de Bioetica (22/05/2015)