Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Introduction: stem cell science,
biotechnology and the problem
of commercialization
Abstract.
This introduction outlines the background behind the
emergence of stem cell science as a global industry, how it fits in and
exceeds the biotechnology industry model, and some of the options for
product development that are emerging in the stem cell sciences. The
difficulties of commercializing biotechnology and how these new
products are circumventing some of these difficulties are also discussed.
The end of the chapter provides an outline of the chapters to come.
Keywords:
biotechnology, commercial models, the valley of death,
new products
Since stem cells were first isolated from a human embryo in 1998,
interest in the development of a global stem cell market has grown
exponentially. Prior to this, while the existence of human embryonic
stem cells had long been established, it was thought impossible to
isolate them with any degree of success. The 1998 discovery opened
up a new avenue of research that subsequently became one of the
world's hottest topics.
Following so soon after the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep in the
UK just two years earlier, the isolation of stem cells from human
embryos fuelled an explosion of interest in the clinical and
