U.S. doctors begin first clinical trial of embryonic stem cells on humans

U.S. doctors have begun the first clinical trial of embryonic stem cells in a human, focusing its tests on a patient with a spinal cord injury.

The patient was enrolled at Shepherd Center, a spinal cord and brain injury hospital and clinical research center in Atlanta.

The Phase I trial is not aimed at curing patients but to making sure that the cells are safe to use, Reuters reports.

It is one of of seven potential sites in the United States that may enroll patients in the clinical trial, according to the Geron Corp., which received approval from the FDA to conduct the trial.

Dr. Thomas Okarma, president and CEO of the Geron Corp., noted that when the company first began working on the issue "many predicted that it would be a number of decades before a cell therapy would be approved for human clinical trials."

The California-based company has spent $170 million a developing stem cell treatment for spinal injury. The process involves injecting cells, which have been coaxed to become nerve cells, directly into the spinal cord.

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)