UK Gives Green Light to Embryonic Stem Cell Study

This is the first such ESC trial in Europe, which hopes to offer a glimpse of whether an injection of healthy retinal cells can arrest or even reverse the disease.

U.K. regulators have given the green light to a small but groundbreaking embryonic stem cell treatment advanced by the MA-based biotech Advanced Cell Technology for Stargardt's macular dystrophy, an incurable disease.

This is the first such ESC trial in Europe, which hopes to offer a glimpse of whether an injection of healthy retinal cells can arrest or even reverse the disease. A similar study was launched at UCLA in July while Geron has its own ESC study underway in the U.S. for a different target.

James Bainbridge at the Moorfields Eye Hospital, who will conduct the trial in London, said it was "hugely exciting" to be given a chance to start testing these retinal cells made from ESCs.

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