The fact that no clinical studies have ever been done with derivatives of embryonic cells makes ruling out a whole host of safety issues—from whether the cells will spawn tumors or migrate to the wrong places in the spinal column—all the more necessary, says Anthony Davies, especially since these cells could serve as the foundation of an entire new template for pharmaceutical products.

 

“These are the very early days,” says Susan Howley, director of research for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which allocates only about 10 percent of its funds to stem cell-related projects. “It’s not that we don’t believe in stem cells, but simply because, from the perspective of our individual grants program, many of the projects we have seen have lacked scientific rigor, or they’ve been good, substantial science, but have been so basic and so removed from spinal cord application that they are more appropriately funded at the NIH level.” Howley admits, however, that someone has to go first.