UK sets up stem cell bank 19/9/02. By the Public Health Genetics Unit The Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council have announced that a three-year, £2.6 million contract has been awarded to the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control to establish a national repository of stem cell lines.

These cell lines (a cell 'line' is a culture of cells that is capable of surviving and multiplying indefinitely) will be contributed by researchers who have derived them from primary cultures of stem cells obtained either from human embryos or from other human tissue sources.

The UK Stem Cell Bank, which is expected to be in operation within a year, will be responsible for maintaining the cell lines and supplying them to other researchers, both academic and commercial. A high-level Steering Committee will be responsible for developing a code of practice for the operation of the Bank.

UK-based researchers wishing to derive stem cells from human embryos have to apply for a licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; submission of any resulting cell lines to the Stem Cell Bank will be a condition of granting a licence.

The UK currently has a more liberal regulatory regime governing research on human embryonic stem cells than is the case elsewhere in Europe or in the US. Enthusiasts for the potential of the technology hope that this, combined with the setting up of the Stem Cell Bank, will give UK researchers a world-wide lead in this field.

Article courtesy of the Public Health Genetics Unit .

Image credit: Yorgos Nikas