STANFORD, Calif. — If every person with juvenile diabetes lived five extra years because of a new stem-cell treatment, would that make California’s $3 billion investment in stem cell research worthwhile? What if heart attacks caused less damage to the heart, or Alzheimer’s disease struck at age 75 instead of 70?It’s too soon to know which, if any, of these potential benefits might come out of California’s vote in 2004 to pass Proposition 71, which established the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to fund stem cell research in the state. But three researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine think there’s no time like the present to start putting a dollar value to possible future therapies.
