NEW YORK –Despite all the excitement, big questions remain about turning this week’s stem-cell breakthrough into new treatments for the sick, and it’s not clear when they’ll be answered.
Scientists have to learn more about the new kind of cell the research produced. They also have to find a different way to make it, to avoid a risk of cancer. Even after that, plenty of steps are needed to harness this laboratory advance for therapy.
So, when will doctors and patients see new treatments? Scientists only hedge.
“I just can’t tell you dates,” says James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the scientists in the United States and Japan who announced the breakthrough on Tuesday.