Stem Cells: The Building Blocks of Life
Timeline (1956-2014)
1956
Dr. E. Donnall Thomas performs the first successful bone marrow transplant on an leukemia patient using bone marrow from the patient’s identical twin.
1968
Robert Edwards and Barry Bavister fertilize a human egg in a test tube, marking the beginning of vitro fertilization.
1973
The first bone marrow transplant between two unrelated patients is performed between a 5 year old recipient in New York and a donor in Denmark.
1978
Haematopoietic stem cells are discovered in human umbilical cord blood.
1995
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin isolate the first embryonic stem cells in primates.
1998
A group of scientists led by James Thompson isolate and grow the first stem cells taken from human embryos.
1961
Till & McCulloh establish the foundation for stem cell science. While working for the Ontario Cancer Institute, the two scientists proved the existence of stem cells in their published work: “Radiation Research”.
1968
Dr. Robert Good uses bone marrow to treat a non-cancer patient: an eight-year-old boy with severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID).
1974
Congress bans all federally funded fetal tissue research until the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research devises guidelines for fetal tissue research.
1981
Dr. Martin Evans and Dr. Matthew Kaufman of the University of Cambridge grow mouse embryonic stem cells in a petri dish.
1996
Dr. Ian Wilmut uses the nuclear transfer method to replace the nucleus of a fertilized sheep embryo with the nucleus from an adult mammary gland, successfully creating Dolly the Sheep.
