By Donald Zuhn --
Last week, Geron Corp. announced that it had enrolled the first patient in the company's clinical trial of GRNOPC, a human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cell line. The trial's first patient, who has asked to remain anonymous, was enrolled at Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA, one of seven U.S. sites that may enroll patients in the trial. Geron's release noted that Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, IL was also open for patient enrollment. The company said it will announce the remaining locations as they are ready to enroll patients.
According to a press release issued by Geron, the Phase I clinical trial will assess the safety and tolerability of GRNOPC1 in patients with complete American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale grade A thoracic spinal cord injuries. The release notes that participants in the trial must be newly injured (i.e., receive GRNOPC1 within 14 days of the injury), and have suffered a crushed but not severed spinal injury. Only eight patients will participate in the study.
Geron president and CEO Dr. Thomas Okarma called the trial "a milestone for the field of human embryonic stem cell-based therapies," and noted that the trial was the culmination of work on hESCs that the company began in 1999. Dr. David Apple, Shepherd Center's medical director emeritus and principal investigator of the Shepherd Center trial, said the trial represented another step forward "in an attempt to find a cure for paralysis in people with spinal cord injury."
Additional information regarding the trial and enrollment of the first patient can be found in reports by ABC News, Forbes, and Reuters.
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