The FDA has approved the second stem-cell trial on humans: Advanced Cell Technology will test the effects of stem-cell treatments on 12 patients with Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, a disease that causes progressive blindness, Reuters reports. The currently untreatable disease causes degeneration of eye tissue beginning as early as age 10. With stem cells, “we can generate a virtually unlimited supply” of healthy eye tissue cells, said the chief medical officer at the Massachusetts lab.
The trial could start "as soon as two to three months" from now, he added. Click here for more on the first approved stem cell trial.
(More Advanced Cell Technology Inc. stories.)