Prieto on the Future of Stem Cell Therapies

One of the longtime directors of the California stem cell agency has commented on “The Elusive Stem Cell and the Power of Hope” item on Monday, which noted that fully tested stem cell therapies are still far from the marketplace.

Francisco Prieto, a Sacramento physician who has served on the CIRM board since 2004, said in an email yesterday,

“The advantage of being an old(er) doctor: I can remember the early 1980’s, when monoclonal antibodies had been identified and there was a great deal of excitement about the potential they held for treating previously untreatable diseases. It took a couple of decades, but these 'biologicals' have indeed become routine parts of medical therapy.  It may take a while yet, but I fully expect that we will see the same thing happen with stem cell based therapies.”