All interesting stuff, my only growing concern with all this is...

All interesting stuff, my only growing concern with all this is by the time the likes of the FDA (closed because of the US govt shut-down [cough cough]) have finished studying these cells they'll have been more studied than the Mona Lisa but sadly impacted fewer people.

Again I state 2 points:

1) We need to leverage off what Japan is attempting to do and REALLY move things Forward, not so much the FDA concept of moving something forward - yeah, into another "study"!

2) If govts (particularly the near broke Uncle Sam) are serious about getting better bang for their health buck - embrace stem cell and gene therapy - to a safe standard YES, but not to a standard that gives statistics freaks a wet-dream and everyone else nothing!

There was a good interview with the chief of CSL a couple of months or so back, he stated well how often backward the US medical approval system really is! We must Not get caught-up with those blokes - you can spend decades going NOwhere!