The stocks of stem cell therapy developers got a big boost on Tuesday, despite a huge loss for the overall stock market.
Shares of StemCell Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., surged 17 percent to $2.48, according to an Associated Press story at Forbes.com. Geron Corp. shares rose 3 percent to $6.57. Geron is based in Menlo Park, Calif.
Investors are expecting Pres. Barrack Obama to issue an executive order lifting a federal ban on funding research that uses embryonic stem cells. The ban is not against development of embryonic stem cell therapies, just against the federal funding of research involving these cells.
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Stem cells are progenitor cells that can develop into many types of tissues in the body. For instance, stem cells are being tested as a way to restore blood vessel and muscle tissue in the heart that is damaged by an attack.
Embryonic stem cells are extracted from human embryos, destroying them. This practice is highly controversial because some people believe destroying human embroyos is killing pre-born children, hence the ban on federal research funding.
Most of the companies whose shares rose Tuesday use adult stem cells in their research, the AP said.  Adult stem cells are derived from non-embryonic sources like the bone marrow of adults or umbilical cord blood.
In January, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared Geron’s application to conduct early-stage clinical trials on its embryonic stem cell therapy, which is aimed at treating severe spinal cord injuries. It was the first company to gain such clearance, the AP said.
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Some researchers believe that adult stem cells act more predictably than do embryonic stem cells. For instance, embryonic stem cells sometimes cause tumors, as they did in a Washington boy who had a lethal brain disease, according to the Washington Post.
California’s stem cell funding agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco, is seeking $400 million in funding over the next two years to ease a cash squeeze, according to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.
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