Stem cell research – timeline
The last 10 years have seen a huge increase in research into stem cells, but when did it all begin?
1956
First successful bone marrow transplant between a related donor and recipient is performed by Dr E Thomas in New York. The patient, who has leukaemia, is given radiotherapy and then treated with healthy bone marrow from an identical twin.
Dr E Donnall Thomas
Dr E Donnall Thomas performed the first successful bone marrow transplant between a related donor and recipient. He is pictured here, in a research lab, early in his career.
1960
Researchers discover bone marrow contains at least two kinds of stem cells – blood or haematopoietic stem cells that form all the types of blood cells in the body and stromal stem cells that form bone, cartilage, fat, and connective tissue.
1960
First research report to indicate that the brain may generate new nerve cells is published, but not widely accepted.
For further information, see article: Stem cell therapy – a bird-brain idea?
1968
British scientist Robert Edwards and his student, Barry Bavister, became the first to fertilise a human egg in the test tube. This is the beginning of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) technologies.
1968
First bone marrow transplant for non-cancer treatment. Dr Robert Good uses a bone marrow transplant to treat an eight year old boy with severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID). The donor is an HLA-matched sister.
1973
First bone marrow transplant between unrelated patients. A five year old patient in New York with SCID is treated with multiple infusions of bone marrow from a donor in Denmark.
1978
The first IVF baby is born in England.
1978
Blood stem cells are discovered in human umbilical cord blood.
1981
Mouse embryonic stem cells are derived for the first time from the inner cell mass of a mouse blastocyst and grown in vitro.
1984 – 1998
Pluripotent stem cells are isolated. When exposed to retinoic acid, these cells differentiate into neuron-like cells and other cell types.
Embryonic stem cells
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent. An embryo begins as a single, fertilised egg that divides to form a blastocyst. The blastocyst is made up of embryonic stem cells, which can differentiate into all cells, such as brain, heart, liver and lung cells.
1989
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is developed – a method where a single stem cell can be removed from an IVF embryo and tested for inherited diseases.
1990
Bone marrow donor programme initiated.
1990
Dr Thomas receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work on bone marrow transplants.
1995
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin derive the first embryonic stem cells from non-human primates.
1998
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin, led by James Thompson, isolate and grow the first stem cells from human embryos. The embryos used in these studies were created by IVF.
Stem cells from IVF
Embryonic stem cells can be collected from unused fertilised eggs from in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The stem cells could be used to treat human disease and repair tissue. The use of stem cells from IVF fertilised eggs presents ethical issues as the harvesting of the stem cells means the embryo will never grow into an adult.
1999
Researchers discover that stem cells can be made to differentiate into different cell types.
2001
President George W Bush permits federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, but only on the 64 existing stem cell lines.
2004
Researchers in South Korea claim to be the first to clone a human embryo and then harvest the stem cells for research. The research is later found to have been fabricated.
2004
California becomes the first state in the USA to provide its own fund for embryonic stem cell research.
2005
George W Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem cell research are loosened.
2009
President Barack Obama reverses George W Bush's executive order and issues a replacement order removing barriers for research.
2010
The US FDA gives approval to test human embryonic stem cell treatments for degenerative eye disease.
2013
The world's first stem cell burger, grown from cow muscle cells, is cooked and eaten. The 142 g patty took 3 months to create.
2014
US and Japanese researchers discover that "any cell can be potentially rewound to a pre-embryonic state" using a short, simple technique.
2015
The cost of a lab-grown burger drops from USD$325,000 per patty to a more reasonable USD$11.36.
2015
Japanese scientists grow and transplant a functioning kidney into a living organism.
2016
Lab-grown mouse eggs result in 11 apparently healthy live births. The research began with more than 300 embryos.
