Stem Cell Research Timeline

In New York, Doctor E. Donnall Thomas treats a patient with leukemia by radiotherapy and a transplant of bone marrow from an identical twin. This was the first successful bone marrow transplant between a related donor and recipient.

 Researchers discover that bone marrow contains at least two kinds of stem cells:

1. Blood stem cells which form all different types of blood cells throught the body.

2. Stromal stem cells which make up cartilage, fat, connective tissue, and bones themselves.

 First research report directed torwards indication that the brain may possibly generate new nerve cells was published. However this topic was not widely accepted by society.

The first human egg was fertilized in a test tube by a British scientist named Robert Edwards. This was the beginning of in vitro fertilization (IVF) technologies.

Reference:  http://www.biotechlearn.org.nz/themes/biotech_therapies/images/stem_cells_from_ivf

Dr Robert Good used a bone marrow transplant from a closely related donor to treat an eight year old boy with severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID). This was the first bone marrow transplant for a non-cancer patient.

A five year old patient in New York with SCID is treated with bone marrow from a donor in Denmark. This was the first bone marrow transplant between two unrelated patients.

 The first blood stem cells were found in umbilical cord blood.

 Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) was developed (a method where a single stem cell can be removed from an in vitro grown embryo and tested for inherited diseases).

 Scientists at the University of Wisconsin took the first embryonic stem cells from non-human primates.

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin, isolate and grow the first stem cells from human embryos. The embryos used in these studies were created by IVF.

 Reserchers dicover that stem cells can be differentiated into different cell types.

 President George W Bush permits federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, but with many limits.

 California becomes the first state in the USA to provide its own fund for embryonic stem cell research.

President Barack Obama relieves many restrictions put on stem cell research in 2001 by President Bush. scientists working on embryonic stem cell research gain more access to federal funds.

Reference for timeline:  http://www.biotechlearn.org.nz/themes/biotech_therapies/timeline_for_stem_cell_research