The BBC reports on progress in control of embryonic stem cell differentiation: "The world's first pure nerve stem cells made from human embryonic stem cells have been created ... "This is incredibly exciting in terms of curing disease. We may be able to create the disease in a dish. If we do that, we'll be able to better understand the disease and also to test drugs. ... the long-term aim of the Edinburgh research is for cells to be used to build replacement neural tissue for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's sufferers. But he said the more immediate use for the artificially-created cells is to test out the effectiveness of new drugs. ... Hopefully that will come to pass within two to three years. In terms of the possibility of using the cells for transplantation, that's a much more difficult and longer term thing and I think there we're talking more of the five to ten year range."

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4155016.stm