California’s stem cell program is set to award $11.6 million on Thursday to help finance a first-in-human, gene therapy clinical trial that is aimed at reducing pain and joint degeneration from arthritic knees, which trouble more than 14 million Americans.
The award applicant is Genascence, Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., firm, which plans a 50-patient, phase 1b, multicenter trial. The company will be matching the funds with $7.6 million.
A successful treatment for arthritis of the knee, even if is not a cure, would be the sort of high-profile therapy that voters were led to expect when they voted in 2004 to approve the creation of the stem cell agency. Such a treatment would also resonate with voters when the agency’s current $5 billion runs out in a decade or so.
Full story at The California Stem Cell Report.
It is written: it is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting than having two feet to be cast into the hell of unquenchable fire.
But I think it applies to knees as well.
cannibal culture
I have one knee so arthritic that I need walk with a cane It hurts often but for now I am not a candidate for knee replacement (and may never be). But if the required stem cells come from aborted babies I would rather cane my way for the rest of my walking life, than benefit from evil. Kudos to bedwere (3:32 pm)
don’t kneed this kind of voodoo “healthcare”
“Does stem cell research harm human embryos?
Almost all human embryonic stem cell lines come from embryos left over from in vitro fertilization (IVF). These embryos are only about four to five days old and contain roughly 100 cells. This stage is called the blastocyst, which at this point is smaller than the size of the dot over an “i.” The hollow blastocyst – which is where embryonic stem cells come from – contains a cluster of 20-30 cells called the inner cell mass. These are the cells that become embryonic stem cells in a lab dish. The process of extracting these cells destroys the embryo.
All the embryos used in CIRM-funded research were donated from IVF clinics. They had either been rejected for implantation and were going to be destroyed, or the couple had decided to stop storing the embryos for future use. The embryos used to create embryonic stem cell lines were already destined to be destroyed.”….cannibalism indeed
https://www.cirm.ca.gov/