When scientists talk about the potential embryonic stem cells have in treating disease, they often focus on a relatively distant horizon when new therapies can be developed to cure some of the world's most complex diseases. But the New York Times points to a not-so-distant time when ESCs may be used to create a virtually unlimited supply of blood free from the risk of disease presented by donors.

To get there, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency--a key player in biomedical research--has begun a blood pharming project that will explore just how feasible that can be. The work has been advanced by Advanced Cell Technology, a stem cell company that has a troubled financial record [1], but a history of high-profile breakthroughs. They recently reported making 10 billion to 100 billion red cells [2] after starting with a platelet of ESCs.

"It's the first time to my knowledge that anyone has been able to produce these on a sufficient scale to talk of using them for transfusion purposes," the co-author of the paper, Dr. George Honig of the University of Illinois at Chicago, tells the NYT.

- read the article [3] in the New York Times

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What's in store for stem cell treatments? [7]