Two high-profile California companies – neither of which makes a profit – are the business face of embryonic stem cells in the United States.
Geron Inc. and Advanced Cell Technology Inc., which moved to California from Massachusetts in February, have publicly carried the torch for the promise of embryonic stem cells to produce therapies for spinal cord injuries and for diseases ranging from diabetes to Alzheimer’s.
Both are linked to Michael West, Advanced Cell Technology’s top executive and chief scientific officer. West founded Geron and oversaw its funding of some of the research that led to University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist James Thomson’s isolation of human embryonic stem cells in 1998.