Recent developments by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, the Mayo Clinic, a San Diego pharmaceutical company and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has led to the human clinical trials of a promising drug that may fight a rare blood disease called myeloproliferative disorders (MCD), which can develop into leukemia. Today, the degenerative blood disorder blights the lives of more than 100,000 Americans alone.

Catriona Jamison, M.D., Ph.D. and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California says, "This project has been so extraordinary, because a small pharmaceutical company took a big chance on a rare disease."

Those suffering from MPD generate an excess of blood cells which are caused by mutations in the stem cell during a stage when the stem cell differentiates to become either a white or red blood cell. Research discovered that an inhibitor might be able to slow the proliferation of such blood cells that result in heart attacks, blood clotting, and sometimes leukemia. Research has been partly funded through a grant offered by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Ongoing studies at Harvard Medical School are also showing similar results.

With collaborating efforts from Stanford University and the Mayo Clinic, research led to the development of the inhibitor by a San Diego pharmaceutical company called TargeGen. Human clinical trials are currently under way at the San Diego School of Medicine, the Mayo Clinic, the University of Michigan, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Stanford and Harvard university Schools of Medicine.