The announcement last week of Advanced Cell Technology's imminent closure is evidence that embryonic stem cell technology may be linkurl:too nascent;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54544/ for fruitful biotech innovation, according to some industry analysts. For the past 10 years Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) has been a spotlight company for linkurl:endeavors;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/24363/ in embryonic stem cell research and cloning. But in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last Tuesday (July 15), the company said it was out of money and would likely be closing shop by the end of this month. So what happened? Investment in embryonic stem cell research was at its peak when states including linkurl:California;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53199/ and linkurl:Massachusetts;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53359/ pointedly secured billions of dollars for the research, Stephen Dunn, director of research at Dawson James, told The Scientist. In response to such governmental enthusiasm, investors put money into stem cell companies such as ACT, Osiris, and Bioheart. But with almost no therapeutic advances to...
The ScientistThe ScientistThe ScientistCorrection: In the original version of this article the company name Bioheart was misspelled. has corrected the spelling and regrets the error.

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!