To go along with its recent OK from the FDA to begin treating Stargardt’s disease, a form of juvenile macular degeneration, Advanced Cell Technology announced today that it had filed for a new drug (IND) application to begin a Phase I/II clinical trial using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to treat the dry form of age-related macular degeneration, for which, to date, there is no approved treatment. The trial will be a multi-centered effort and will begin with twelve patients to test the safety of using stem cells in humans.

For more on this ground-breaking announcement, affecting some 30 million people worldwide, please see: link ^[1]

To read about the recent Stargardt’s disease trial, please see:  link ^[2]