Abstract

van Gend, David It was to be the "new dawn" of stem cell science, but it was a false dawn. Every year for a decade the press releases of Geron Corp, a stem cell company in the US, reassured investors that their world-first treatment using embryonic stem cells in spinal injury was going to be approved "next year".1 And every year the regulating authority in the US, the FDA, failed to give approval, asking instead for further reassurance about the safety of the trial. Finally, coinciding with the election of President Obama and the prospect of a new, liberated era of embryonic research, the FDA overcame its qualms and gave the go-ahead.