US regulators have given the go ahead to carry out the world’s first trial of a treatment using embryonic stem cells. Only last week the UK regulator approved the use of fetal embryonic stem cells, in this case to treat victims of spinal cord injury that leaves them unable to walk. Although the FDA decision is independent of the White House, it is being received as a symbol of a new attitude to embryonic stem cell research and President Obama is expected to start lifting funding restrictions next week.
President Obama is the man that can change the world of stem cell treatments, although he may not manage to change the course of the middle east conflict. Attitudes to this conflict are as engrained and entrenched as were Bush’s attitudes to stem cell research
A stroke victim has become the first in the world to have his brain damage successfully treated by stem cell therapy.
