Geron, a biopharmaceutical company interested in medical applications that require human embryonic stem cells, has hired the public relations (PR) firm, Russo Partners, to spread the word that it received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to begin its first clinical trial using the human stem cells in human patients.  As a privately owned entity, Geron, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, is able to sidestep the politics surrounding research using human embryonic stem cells.

The George W. Bush administration would allow limited public funding for research projects involving human embryonic stem cells.  President Barack Obama, however, has expressed a differing opinion and the scientific community is said to be collectively optimistic that Obama goes through with his campaign promise to overturn the Bush ruling restricting funding for this type of projects.  Regardless of the status of the ruling, Geron is funding the project on its own and has never asked for public funding to further its research.

Geron received FDA approval on January 23, at which time Diane Sawyer, host of the ABC television program, ‘Good Morning America,’ was the first to report it, in a televised segment taped months earlier when FDA approval seemed likely.  The story was picked up the same day in website coverage from media giants that include ‘The Wall Street Journal,’ ‘The Times of London,’ ‘The New York Times,’ ‘Financial Times,’ ‘CNBC,’ and ‘Bloomberg.’

The approved research will involve using human embryonic stem cells to grow oligodendrocytes which will be implanted in patients suffering recent spinal cord injuries.  The oligodendrocytes will then repair tears in the myelin sheath surrounding spinal cord nerve cells.  Tears in the myelin sheath, which lines nerve cells, cause electrical signals that normally travel from one nerve cell to the other to escape the nervous system.  When this happens, transferring the signal from limb to brain becomes impossible.  The procedure has been tried successfully in laboratory rats and, with the FDA’s approval, Geron can now advance the research to humans suffering similar spinal cord injuries.

Geron and its PR firm are directing their awareness efforts to the medical community instead of the public.  The human subjects needed for the clinical trial must have been injured no more than 14 days before entering the study.