1955 – Dr. E. Donnall Thomas began researching the possibility of using bone marrow transplantation to cure humans with life-threatening diseases in the United States.

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1959 – Experiments in mice proved the existence of blood stem cells in bone marrow.

1960 – The first successful bone marrow transplant used thebone marrow from an identical twin to treat the other. 

1988 – The first successful cord blood transplant was performed.

1990 – The number of transplants performed annually had expanded to 11,000. Dr. Thomas earned a Nobel Prize in 1990 for establishing bone marrow transplantation as a successful treatment for leukemia and other blood conditions.

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1992 – The first public blood bank for cord blood opened in New York.

2000 – Adult stem cells were recognized as having the potential to generate various cells for other organs.

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2002 – The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISCF) was established.

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2006 – Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan succeeded in creating embryonic-like cells from adult cells. His team reprogramed adult cells forming induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).

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2009 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the world’s first human clinical trial for pluripotent stem-cell based therapy.

2014 – The first in-human clinical trial iPSC-derived retinal pigmented epithelial cells were transplanted in first patient in a clinical trial to treat macular degeneration.

2016 – Stem cells provided substantial recovery in patients who were disabled by stroke.

2016 – A small-scale study demonstrated the power of stem cells to repair damaged scar tissue caused by heart attacks.

2017 – Cambridge scientists reported the development of an artificial mouse embryo using stem cells - a breakthrough in fertility research.

2018 – Mouse and human skin cells were reprogrammed into immune cells to combat cancer.

2020 – A pre-clinical study of iPSC - derived dopaminergic progenitor cells for Parkinson’s disease was completed and approved for phase one clinical trials. 

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2021 – Promising early results from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute paved the way for a breakthrough treatment of type 1 diabetes that signify the restoration of insulin-producing islet cells.

Since the early 2000s, cell-based treatments called cell therapies have been making substantial progress in a variety of health conditions. To date, several clinical trials involving iPSCs have already started showing positive results in diseases such as macular degeneration, Parkinson’s disease, and cardiovascular disease.