Nobel Effort

The cell research that netted three scientists a Nobel Prize Monday has been at the center of a California biotechnology company's two-decade attempt to discover a cancer treatment.

Menlo Park, California-based Geron Corp. is studying a vaccine that targets an enzyme, called telomerase, believed to help cancer cells thrive. Money-losing Geron isn't close to proving its vaccine is effective. In fact, the company is better known for its stem-cell research and for acquiring the cloning technology that created Dolly the Sheep.

"They have their hands in a lot of exciting, different areas," says Morningstar Inc. analyst Karen Andersen. At the same time, "they're a leading company in an area that's extremely unknown and unclear."

The Nobel scientists, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak were honored for their work in studying the ways chromosomes protect themselves when cells divide. Their work (mostly done in the 1980s) spurred cancer research around telomerase, though no company is even close to proving success.

Geron appears to be the farthest along in pushing the research toward commercialization. It partnered with drug maker Merck & Co. to stage human trials of the cancer vaccine, receiving a $5 million payment two years ago.

The biotech company's research of telomerase produced other licensing deals, including one with a private company that sells anti-aging pills. Geron licenses a molecule found in a Chinese herb known as TA-65 to New York-based T.A. Sciences that actually activates the enzyme to help other cells live longer and slow down the aging process. TA-65 is considered a nutritional supplement and isn't regulated like a drug.