Geron: Where's the Stem Cell Beef?

The blog on the Wired Magazine website had a great post earlier this week on Geron's failure to take any of its vaunted stem cell therapies into clinical trials. Geron, you'll recall, funded University of Wisconsin researcher's James Thomson's seminal work on isolating embryonic stem cells, and licensed its most promising uses. That patent, held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), was recently challenged by the Patent and Trademark Office, a challenge backed by several consumer groups. The Wired blog post provides ample evidence as to why it would be a good thing if WARF and Geron lose their battle to hold onto exclusive rights to embryonic stem cells' most promising uses.