Stem Cell research key events

1960s - Joseph Altman and Gopal Das present evidence of adult neurogenesis, ongoing stem cell activity in the brain; their reports contradict Cajals "no new neurons" dogma and are largely ignored

1963 - McCulloch and Till illustrate the presence of self-renewing cells in mouse bone marrow

1968 - Bone marrow transplant between two siblings successfully treats SCID


1978 - Haematopoietic stem cells are discovered in human cord blood

1981 - Mouse embryonic stem cells are derived from the inner cell mass

1992 - Neural stem cells are cultured in vitro as neurospheres

1995 - U.S. President Bill Clinton signs into law the Dickey Amendment which prohibited
Federally appropriated funds to be used for research where human embryos would be either created or destroyed.

1997 - Leukemia is shown to originate from a haematopoietic stem cell, the first direct evidence for cancer stem cells

1998 - James Thomson and coworkers derive the first human embryonic stem cell line at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2000s - Several reports of adult stem cell plasticity are published

2001 - Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology clone first early (4 to 6 cell stage) human embryos for the purpose of generating embryonic stem cells

2003 - Dr. Songtao Shi of NIH discovers new source of adult stem cells in children's primary teeth

02 November, 2004 - California voters approve Proposition 71, which provides $3 billion in state funds over ten years to human embryonic stem cell research.

2001-2006 - U.S. President George W. Bush endorses the Congress in providing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research of approximately $100 million as well as $250 million dollars for research on adult and animal stem cells. He also enacts laws that restrict federally-funded stem cell research on embryonic stem cells to the already derived cell lines.

5 May, 2006 - Senator Rick Santorum introduces bill number S. 2754, into the U.S. Senate

18 July, 2006 - The U.S. Senate passes the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act H.R. 8 and votes down Senator Santorum's S.2754.

19 July, 2006 - President George W. Bush vetoes H.R. 810 (Stem Cell Researc Enhancement Act, a bill that would have reversed the Clinton-era law which made it illegal for Federal money to be used for research where stem cells are derived from the destruction of an embryo.

August 2006 - Cell Journal publishes Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka, Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Mouse Embryonic and Adult Fibroblast Cultures by Defined Factors

07 November, 2006 - The people of the U.S. state of Missouri passed Amendment 2, which allows usage of any stem cell research and therapy allowed under federal law, but prohibits human reproductive cloning.

07 January, 2007 - Scientists at Wake Forest University led by Dr. Anthony Atala and Harvard University report discovery of a new type of stem cell in amniotic fluid This may potentially provide an alternative to embryonic stem cells for use in research and therapy.

16 February, 2007 The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine became the biggest financial backer of human embryonic stem cell research in the United States when they awarded nearly $45 million in research grants.

06 June 2007 - Research reported by three different groups shows that normal skin cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic state in mice.

Stem Cell research key events in other countries

2004-2005 - Korean researcher Hwang Woo-Suk claims to have created several human embryonic stem cell lines from unfertilised human oocytes. The lines were later shown to be fabricated.

2005 - Researchers at Kingston University in England claim to have discovered a third category of stem cell, dubbed cord-blood-derived embryoniclike stem cells (CBEs), derived from umbilical cord blood. The group claims these cells are able to differentiate into more types of tissue than adult stem cells.

18 June 2007 Scientist Shoukhrat Mitalipov reports the first successful creation of a primate stem cell line through somatic cell nuclear transfer