Alan Jakimo, J.D.

By the 1970s, decades of scientific discoveries and discourse had led a small, but growing, number of biologists and physicians to view developmental biology as a potentially powerful tool for promoting and protecting human health. Near the end of that decade, the U.S. National Institutes of Health was poised to fund and conduct research related to the safety of medically assisted reproductive therapy.1 Although NIH had been advised by an independent Ethics Advisory Board that this research could be conducted in an ethically aceptable manner, in September 1980 – two months before the U.S. presidential election of that year – the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rejected the plan to do so and allowed the EAB’s charter to lapse.2 Thirty years have passed since that rejection, and political headwinds continue to prevent NIH from fully pursuing that mission. However, in that void and notwithstanding the contentious politics, a worldwide network of research and development programs and a nascent industrial infrastructure have emerged, particularly during the last decade. This network includes research with not only hESC lines, but also lines derived from tissue specific stem cells (perhaps a better term than “adult stem cells”), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), and directly reprogrammed tissue specific cells. This 2010 WSCS Report tells the story of the emergence of this global network and its current state of affairs. It also offers a vision of how intellectual and financial capital can be used to translate stem cell science into regenerative medicine.