UK Stem Cell Bank Ready to Ship

Embryonic stem cell scientists around the world will soon have a new source of high-quality cell lines to work with (as long as they're not funded by the U.S. government). The UK Stem Cell Bank, which set up shop in 2002, expects to release its first two lines in about two weeks. The bank has about 40 total that it's putting through stringent quality control before it will offer them to scientists.

All requests to deposit or withdraw lines must be given ethical and legal approval by its high-level steering committee, which is chaired by Lord Naren Patel. The committee scrutinizes whether lines are ethically sourced with fully informed consent and aims to ensure that they are used only in projects with ethical approval.

Setting up the bank, which is housed at the UK's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control outside London, has been a painstaking process, said Stacey. "The organization has taken it as an important principle to have careful planning," he said. "We're not here to steal a few headlines, we're here to improve science and future medicine."