OUR IMPACT

The word "stem cell" is more than 150 years old. And in a single generation, stem cell science has become the foundation of an entire branch of medicine and biological understanding.

But scientific progress requires more than discovery. It requires guidance that crosses borders, advocacy that balances hope against reality, a shared record of what has actually been shown, stewardship of the next generation, and a place the field can argue with itself before it argues with the world.

This is the work of the ISSCR.

  • 1) Where the field hears it first.

    In July 2026, three separate Parkinson's disease cell therapy programmes reported clinical results at the ISSCR Annual Meeting. One had met its primary endpoint, with twelve-month data published in Nature Medicine the same day. The work traced back forty years, to the first attempts in Lund to replace the neurons that Parkinson's destroys.

    Learn More

  • National frameworks built on the work of ISSCR.

    When the United Kingdom drafted the world's first code of practice for stem cell-based embryo models in 2024, it built on the ISSCR Guidelines — and said so, committing to keep future versions aligned. Three years earlier, the Guidelines had called for exactly this kind of national oversight.

    Learn More

  • Speaking when it costs something.

    In January 2026, the NIH ended federal support for research using human fetal tissue — work that has underpinned vaccine development and the study of human development for nearly a century. The ISSCR objected publicly and urged reconsideration. Nature and Science both carried the Society's position.

    Learn More

  • The standard institutions actually use.

    The US National Academies, reviewing how neural organoids and chimeras should be governed, observed that the ISSCR Guidelines are widely followed by the institutions doing this research. Not a claim the Society made — a finding by an independent body of the highest standing.

    Click Here

  • Building the mechanisms of oversight.

    The first ISSCR Guidelines, in 2006, proposed that research institutions establish dedicated stem cell oversight committees. Universities built them. Two decades later, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Washington, Miami and institutions worldwide still run them — and still cite the Guidelines in their governing policy.

    Click Here

  • Defending the science in court.

    In 2024, a lower court ruled that the FDA could not regulate certain stem cell products. Left standing, the decision would have opened the door to unproven therapies nationwide. The ISSCR filed a brief putting the science before the appeals court. The Ninth Circuit reversed, and the FDA's authority held.

    Learn More

On the Horizon

Emerging therapies, at scale.

Several stem cell-derived therapies have reached patients, and more are in clinical trials. Others depend on this science without carrying its name: many gene therapies act by correcting a gene within a stem cell that is then returned to the patient.

Most conditions that could be addressed this way have no candidate therapy, and in many the underlying biology remains unresolved. This applies to common diseases and to rare ones, where small patient populations weaken the case for investment. Therapies that do succeed must still be manufactured consistently, distributed affordably, and reimbursed within regulatory and payment systems designed for small-molecule drugs.

Better models, for all of medicine.

Stem cell-derived systems are becoming sufficiently predictive of human biology to inform decisions. The implications extend well beyond this field: most drug candidates fail late in development, at substantial cost, because the models used to evaluate them do not reflect human physiology. More predictive human models could shorten development timelines and reduce costs across pharmaceutical research, including for conditions unrelated to stem cell science.

Discovery, accelerating.

Imaging that resolves single cells within living tissue. Sequencing that characterizes millions of them simultaneously. Computational models and machine learning that identify structure in datasets beyond human interpretation. Individually, each represents an improved instrument. In combination, they are altering both the rate at which the field advances and the questions it is able to pose. Work that once required a decade now takes a year, and questions that could not previously be formulated are becoming tractable.

OUR WORK

Progress on all of this depends on more than the science. New capabilities require frameworks to govern them, evidence before the field will rely on them, clinicians and patients equipped to evaluate them, and scientists to carry the work forward. The ISSCR organizes its work around these requirements, through four programs: Foresight & Guidance, Disease Models & Drug Discovery, Clinical Readiness & Education, and Future of the Field.

ABOUT ISSCR

Across more than 80 countries, the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to advancing stem cell research and its translation to medicine.