Geron Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company based in Menlo Park, California, with a subsidiary office in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company is involved in developing treatments for cancer and degenerative diseases, including spinal cord injury, heart failure, diabetes, and AIDS. Geron is also involved in embryonic stem cell-based therapeutics with a spinal cord injury treatment about to enter clinical development. Geron is traded on the Nasdaq with the symbol GERN. Geron is involved in various cancer treatments that target the enzyme telomerase, which is expressed in cancer cells but not normal cells. Specifically, Geron's work targets DNA sequences called GRN163 and GRN163L and Geron is working on a vaccine that will teach the immune system to attack telomerase-presenting cells. Other anti-cancer efforts by the company include a project to develop viruses that will attack cells expressing telomerase and cancer diagnostics based on the presence of telomerase. In its stem cell business, Geron is developing treatments for spinal cord injury, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and hematological disorders. Geron has nine cell lines with seven on the NIH registry, and it funded research by Dr. James Thompson of University of Wisconsin-Madison that was the first to derive embryonic stem cells. Geron holds exclusive commercialization rights to three cell types (cardiomyocytes, neural cells, and pancreatic islet cells) and non-exclusive rights to three others (hematopoietic cells, osteoblasts, and chondrocytes) for therapeutic and diagnostic products and non-exclusive rights to commercialize research products on six cell types.