The world's first clinical trial for stem cell therapy began on Monday. The trial is still in its very early stages - only 10 people who have suffered recent spinal cord injuries will be enrolled - but it's still a landmark event.

The world will be watching the results of those trials at as many as seven centers around the country.

In at least one sense, the trial is already a victory. The political controversy around stem cells resulted in funding delays for scientific research, and many scientists were afraid that other countries would beat the United States to the trial stage.

Instead, a local company - Geron Corp. of Menlo Park - is running the trial, with American patients and within American borders. It's an encouraging sign, and it means there's a good chance that the industry will continue to grow here. It's also a rebuke to those who would happily block science - including the federal judge who ruled in September that federal funding for stem cell research was illegal.

The trial is also a positive breakthrough in that it shows that the promise of stem cells is indeed within our reach. We don't know yet whether the trial will be successful, but at least we know that all of the money that's been invested so far into basic research will soon have positive manifestations.

That includes the $3 billion that California voters invested in the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Though that institute isn't responsible for this trial - a spokesperson told us that the research was begun before California voters passed Prop. 71 - it's a funder of the trial team's research. We look forward to more trials, and more discoveries, very soon.


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