Geron Corp

Human embryonic stem cell leader Geron Corp. announced that it was laying off nearly half its employees. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company said 40 researchers and support staff were being laid off "in order to concentrate its resources" on developing a cancer drug and stem-cell related therapies. The company, which laid off a third of its staff and cut research spending during the summer, is now left with 51 employees. Geron shares fell 23 cents to $3 on Nasdaq.

For patients paralyzed by spinal cord injuries, Geron Corp.'s stem cell research was the shining hope. The biotech firm showered scientists with millions of dollars to develop a treatment to reverse spinal damage. The therapy was the first treatment derived from embryonic stem cells to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for testing in humans. But last week, Geron abruptly pulled the plug on its pioneering trial and the rest of its stem cell business, including early work on treatments for heart ailments, diabetes and other diseases.

Shares of Geron Corp. jumped 19% on Wednesday after research on mice suggested a vaccine based on an enzyme studied by the company might work against a range of cancers. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Geron, which has specialized in the study of the enzyme telomerase, rose $5.44 to close at $34.31 in heavy trading on Nasdaq. "Telomerase is expressed in most human tumors, but it is not present in most normal tissue.

On Wednesday morning the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine announced a $25-million award to support a spinal cord injury trial.  It is the first time that the $3-billion state stem cell funding agency has backed a human clinical trial.  As expected by observers, the award is a loan to Geron Corp., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based biopharmaceuticals firm that has been working on a treatment for spinal cord injuries that is derived from...

In a marriage of powerful but controversial technologies, Geron Corp. said Tuesday that it has acquired Roslin Bio-Med, a spinoff of the Scottish institute responsible for the cloned sheep, Dolly. The goal is to combine the expertise of the two small biotechnology companies to clone human cells that can be used to repair damaged hearts, livers and kidneys--and perhaps one day grow replacement organs for transplantation. Menlo Park, Calif.

* Geron Corp. shares fell for the second day, after skyrocketing last week, as investors realized that the biotechnology firm's new research on cells isn't likely to translate into a lucrative product soon. Shares of the Menlo Park-based company fell $1.50 to close at $12.25 on Nasdaq. Geron rose 74% last week on news that the company had managed to isolate in the laboratory a human embryonic "stem cell" that can develop into any kind of human cell.

Geron Corp. and Advanced Cell Technology Inc. agreed to settle a patent dispute over a pioneering cloning technology that led to the creation of Dolly the sheep. Advanced Cell and the University of Massachusetts agreed to end their appeal and give up certain patents for animal cloning technology while keeping rights to a cloning method for human use, Advanced Cell said. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Geron keeps the rights to use the technology in animal cloning.

The stock price of struggling Geron Corp. skyrocketed Tuesday after the company said its experimental cancer vaccine showed promise in fighting all types of the disease. The money-losing biotechnology company had laid off much of its staff in the last year. Its stock recently had languished below $2 a share. Geron's stock soared $2.47 a share, closing at $4.20 on Nasdaq. Nearly 18 million Geron shares traded hands Tuesday, up from about 113,000 shares on an average trading day.

Geron Corp. shares rose 15% after the biotechnology company said it would work with PE Corp.'s Celera Genomics to decipher which human genes play a role determining how undifferentiated stem cells grow into different kinds of tissues. Geron shares rose $3.88 to close at $30.13 on Nasdaq. Celera shares rose $1.75 to $110 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Colombia's Ecopetrol and Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Inc. began to pump and transport oil from eastern Colombia again after guerrilla attacks on a key pipeline shut down activities for six days. Workers from Ecopetrol finished repairs Saturday on the Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline, which carries about one-third of Colombia's oil output to port on the Caribbean coast.

Make way for the future, at least when it comes to stem-cell therapy. An Atlanta hospital treated the first patient Friday in a nationwide clinical trial of a therapy derived from embryonic stem cells. The clinical trial, run by pharmaceutical company Geron Corp., seeks to test whether experimental cells, known as GRNOPC1, are safe for use in humans and whether patients will regain neuromuscular control in their legs and torsos. The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, a rehabilitation hospital that specializes in people who have spinal cord injuries or disease, and Northwestern Medicine in Chicago are currently enrolling patients in the trial.

Geron Corp. and Advanced Cell Technology Inc. agreed to settle a patent dispute over a pioneering cloning technology that led to the creation of Dolly the sheep. Advanced Cell and the University of Massachusetts agreed to end their appeal and give up certain patents for animal cloning technology while keeping rights to a cloning method for human use, Advanced Cell said. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Geron keeps the rights to use the technology in animal cloning.

Biotech company Geron Corp. said Monday that it had signed a licensing deal with drug maker Merck & Co. to develop a cancer vaccine that targets an enzyme linked to tumor growth, sending Geron shares up 27%. Under the terms of the agreement, Geron will receive an upfront payment, milestone payments upon achievement of certain development and regulatory events, and royalties. Specific terms were not disclosed.

Shares in Geron Corp. rose nearly 15% on Tuesday after the small biotech company said it received a patent that could give it an advantage in the race to produce medicines from human embryonic stem cells. The Menlo Park-based firm's shares closed at $7.98, up $1.02, on Nasdaq, after hitting a 52-week high of $9.75 earlier in the day. Embryonic stem cells are formed in the earliest weeks of pregnancy and are capable of turning into any of the 300 cell types in the body.

Shares of struggling Geron Corp. skyrocketed 28% on Tuesday after it published research indicating that it could produce liver cells from stem cells in a way that may help scientists test drugs for liver toxicity. In the journal Cell Transplantation, the biotech company described how its scientists produce hepatocytes, the basic functional cells of the liver, from human embryonic stem cells. Hepatocytes have multiple characteristics, including the ability to metabolize enzymes.

The stock price of struggling Geron Corp. skyrocketed Tuesday after the company said its experimental cancer vaccine showed promise in fighting all types of the disease. The money-losing biotechnology company had laid off much of its staff in the last year. Its stock recently had languished below $2 a share. Geron's stock soared $2.47 a share, closing at $4.20 on Nasdaq. Nearly 18 million Geron shares traded hands Tuesday, up from about 113,000 shares on an average trading day.

Geron Corp. on Tuesday won a U.S. patent for technology to develop immune-system-based cancer therapies, news that sent the biotechnology company's stock up 15%. The patent covers Geron technology for stimulating the body's immune system to attack cancer cells by targeting telomerase, a protein linked to cancer growth. The technology may be used to develop vaccines against a wide range of cancers, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company said.

Geron Corp., the first company to work with stem cells derived from human embryos, said Thursday that it's holding settlement talks with a university foundation that sued Geron over licenses to stem cell types. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Geron hopes to resolve the dispute with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in the near future, the company said.

Human embryonic stem cell leader Geron Corp. announced that it was laying off nearly half its employees. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company said 40 researchers and support staff were being laid off "in order to concentrate its resources" on developing a cancer drug and stem-cell related therapies. The company, which laid off a third of its staff and cut research spending during the summer, is now left with 51 employees. Geron shares fell 23 cents to $3 on Nasdaq.

Geron Corp. on Tuesday won a U.S. patent for technology to develop immune-system-based cancer therapies, news that sent the biotechnology company's stock up 15%. The patent covers Geron technology for stimulating the body's immune system to attack cancer cells by targeting telomerase, a protein linked to cancer growth. The technology may be used to develop vaccines against a wide range of cancers, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company said.