Are therapies based on ES cell research close to being available for patients?
While the panel members discussed research that needs to be completed before clinical trials would be indicated, they did not come to any conclusion about how long such research would take. However, John Gearhart, a member of the Working Group, believes that within three to five years clinical work with human ES cells will be occurring somewhere in the world. While the publication rate of papers involving human ES cells is much slower than the corresponding period of time after mouse ES cells were first announced (based on an analysis by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin), it is anticipated that the rate will increase rapidly over the next few years as research that started a year or so ago is ready to be reported.
