StemCells Inc. Announces Key Research and Development Appointments

Palo Alto, California, November 17, 2003 – StemCells, Inc., (NASDAQ: STEM) today announced the appointments of Drs. Barbara Araneo, Pedro Huertas, and Nobuko Uchida to the newly created positions of Vice President of Development, Acting Chief Medical Officer and Vice President of Stem Cell Biology respectively.

"These appointments reflect the Company's intention to dedicate the necessary resources and talent to furthering the clinical and regulatory development of our human neural stem cell for use in the treatment of Batten Disease without interrupting the critical research and development of potential therapies for other diseases of the central nervous system, pancreas and liver," said Martin McGlynn, President and CEO of StemCells, Inc.

Barbara Araneo, Ph.D., the Company's new Vice President of Development, will be responsible for directing the effort to bring StemCells' cell-based therapeutic products from the preclinical proof of concept stage through the clinical development and regulatory approval process. Prior to joining StemCells, Dr. Araneo was a Scientific Co-Founder and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Pharmadigm, a privately held biopharmaceutical company with a number of products in various stages of clinical development. Dr. Araneo obtained her doctorate in Cellular Immunology from the University of Rochester and completed her postdoctoral training at Washington University School of Medicine and at the Department of Microbiology at UCLA.

Pedro Huertas, M.D., Ph.D., an independent consultant, has recently been retained by the Company as Acting Chief Medical Officer. Reporting to Dr. Araneo, he will be responsible for leading the effort to file the Company's first IND for the treatment of Batten disease, a rare but fatal neurometabolic disorder. He is a Founder and Partner of Anteros, an international clinical research management organization. Previously he was Chief Medical Officer at Novazyme, where he led the development of enzyme replacement therapy for Pompe's Disease. Prior to that, as Medical Director, Specialty Therapeutics at Genzyme, he directed the clinical development programs for Lysosomal Storage Diseases. Dr Huertas obtained his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School and his doctorate in Cell and Development Biology from Harvard University. He also holds a master's degree in Management from MIT.

Nobuko Uchida, Ph.D., has been promoted to the newly created position of Vice-President of Stem Cell Biology. Dr. Uchida will be responsible for an expanded human tissue-derived stem cell discovery initiative focusing on the discovery of new stem or progenitor cells as well as the furthering the research of the nature and characteristics of the Company's existing neural stem cell and candidate stem-like cells derived from liver and pancreas. Dr. Uchida has served as Director of Stem Cell Biology at StemCells since joining the Company in 1998. In 1999 she was first to identify, by cell surface marker, the human central nervous system stem cell. Previously she was employed at SyStemix, Inc. as a Research Scientist working on hematopoietic stem cell biology. Dr. Uchida has worked in stem cell biology for the past 10 years, and obtained her Doctorate Degree in Cancer Biology from Stanford University and completed her Post Doctoral training in the Laboratory of Dr. Irving Weissman at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

#########################

StemCells, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of stem cell-based therapies to treat diseases of, or injury to, the nervous system, liver, and pancreas. The Company's stem cell programs seek to repair or repopulate neural or other tissue that has been damaged or lost as a result of disease or injury. Further information about the Company is available on its web site, at www.stemcellsinc.com.

Statements in this press release other than statements of historical facts constitute forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the future business operations of StemCells, Inc. ("the Company"). The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this news release. StemCells does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof. Such statements reflect management's current views and are based on certain assumptions that may or may not ultimately prove valid. The Company's actual results may vary materially from those contemplated in the forward looking statements due to risks and uncertainties to which the Company is subject, including the risk that Company will not be successful in using the patented technologies to develop effective treatments for human diseases; uncertainties regarding the Company's ability to obtain the capital resources needed to conduct the research, preclinical development and clinical trials necessary for regulatory approvals; the fact that the Company's stem cell technology is at the pre-clinical state and has not yet led to the development of any proposed product; the uncertainty whether the Company's preclinical work will be replicable in another animal model and whether comparable results will be obtainable in humans; the uncertainty whether any products that may be generated in the future in the Company's stem cell programs will prove clinically effective and not cause tumors or other side effects; the uncertainty whether the Company will achieve revenues from product sales or become profitable; and others that are described in Exhibit 99 to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K entitled "Cautionary Factors Relevant to Forward Looking Statements."

Corporate Contact:

StemCells, Inc.
Martin McGlynn, President & CEO
650-475-3100, ext 108

BMC Communications Group (media)
Brad Miles
212-477-9007, ext. 17

Media / Investor Relations Contact:

The Investor Relations Group
Janet Vasquez / Jane Lin
212-825-3210