Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) announced that is has received a milestone payment of $1.5 million from Exeter Life Sciences, Inc. as a result of the final Risk Assessment released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration addressing food products made from cloned animals or their progeny. The Risk Assessment, available at http://www.fda.gov/cvm/CloneRiskAssessment_Final.htm, concluded that consumption of such food products poses no greater risk than consumption of food products from animals produced by conventional breeding methods.

In April 2005, Geron and Exeter Life Sciences created a joint venture company, Start Licensing, Inc., (“Start”) to manage and license a broad portfolio of intellectual property rights related to animal reproductive technologies, including patents covering the foundational nuclear transfer technology used to create Dolly the cloned sheep. In consideration for licensing certain patent rights to Start, Geron received a 49.9% stake in the joint venture company, an upfront cash payment, the right to the milestone payment noted above and defined profit distributions.

The technology that Start offers has the potential to impact many fields of agriculture and biotechnology product development. For human medicine, cloning may be used to develop animals that secrete therapeutic proteins in their milk to produce humanized antibodies for use as vaccines or generate animal tissues modified for xenotransplantation. In agriculture, cloning can be used to improve health, quality and consistency of animal herds more quickly than is possible through conventional breeding. Cloning may also be used to complement breeding technologies that are currently widely used in the meat and dairy industries, such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer.

Geron is developing first-in-class biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer and chronic degenerative diseases, including spinal cord injury, heart failure and diabetes. The company is advancing an anti-cancer drug and a cancer vaccine that target the enzyme telomerase through multiple clinical trials. Geron is also the world leader in the development of human embryonic stem cell-based therapeutics, with its spinal cord injury treatment anticipated to be the first product to enter clinical development. For more information, visit www.geron.com.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release regarding potential applications of nuclear transfer technology constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and commercialization of potential products, need for future capital, dependence upon collaborators and maintenance of our intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on potential factors that could affect our results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in our periodic reports, including the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007.

Contacts:

Geron
David L. Greenwood, Chief Financial Officer, 650-473-7765
info@geron.com
or
Russo Partners, LLC
Media and Investors:
David Schull, 858-717-2310
david.schull@russopartnersllc.com
Tracey Milani, 619-814-3511
tracey.milani@russopartnersllc.com