There are some immediate experiments to see if we can use the same cocktails of growth factors to expand cord blood cells or human stem cells.

We want to understand how stem cells make this decision to differentiate or stay stem cells. What signals do they get? These are big questions, difficult questions, and we need to answer them. These are hard questions, but slowly we'll get the ability to answer them.

Right now, the techniques for gene therapy are kind of brute force. You put the gene in and hope it goes into the right place. There's no selection. What we would like to do is put the gene into stem cells, grow them and watch them to be as sure as one can be that we've got the right gene into the right cells and nothing untoward has happened.

This would increase the chance of getting a good transplant.

Stocks are going to be under some pressure over the next six to nine months. Revenue growth is very modest, and that's going to dampen profit margins, as will the currency translation with the stronger dollar.

We are confident of delivering further growth from our business in 2006.