After Menlo Park-based Geron Corporation, it's the turn of yet another California company to move forward with plans to conduct stem cell research into the treatment of spinal cord injury.

The company, StemCells Inc., has now filed for approval to conduct trials. The trials will involve the use of nerve stem cells in patients who have suffered a spinal cord injury. The main difference between these trials and the clinical trials that Geron Corporation has just begun, is that the StemCells Inc.’s trials will include spinal cord injuries that are up to one year old.  The clinical trials at Geron will only involve spinal cord injuries that are very new.

According to the researchers at StemCells Inc., there has been too much focus on treatment at the acute spinal cord injury phase. These new trials will focus on persons who have passed the acute injury phase, but still lack movement. According to the Palo Alto-based company, it has received approval from the relevant ethics committees. The trials are likely to be conducted in Switzerland.  The researchers say Switzerland provides a much more conducive environment for such trials because of the expertise of the investigators and the institutions there, as well as a well-developed network of patients and references.

Earlier this year, a study showed that mice with spinal cord injury which were treated with nerve stem cells were actually able to walk better than mice that were treated with human skin cells or a placebo. StemCells Inc. expects to enroll at least a dozen patients. Patients, whose injuries are about three months to 12 months old, can enlist for the trial.

In spite of a federal judge's ruling earlier this year blocking federal funding for embryonic stem cells research, private companies are going ahead with their research into stem cell therapy for the treatment of a variety of conditions, including spinal cord injury. No California spinal cord injury lawyer would deny that there is great momentum in research into spinal cord injury right now, raising hopes for a cure.