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The Boston Globe Biotech firm suggests a stem-cell bank By Anthony Shadid, Globe Staff, 8/17/2001 BresaGen Inc., one of three companies to have disclosed their ownership of embryonic stem cells, will urge the National Institutes of Health to establish a stem-cell bank and oversee management and distribution to researchers. The company's proposal, which would go far beyond what the NIH has said it plans to do, underscores the uncertainty within the biotech industry that has followed President Bush's decision to sanction federal funding for the work. Dr. Allan Robins, the BresaGen chief scientific officer, said the company lacks the infrastructure to handle stem-cell requests that will probably number in the hundreds. Robins and the company's chief executive, Dr. John Smeaton, will present the proposal for a national stem-cell bank to NIH officials next week. ''We'd like to see some quasi government body set up for the distribution of these cells,'' Robins said from the company's US headquarters in Athens, Ga. ''If we start to get inundated by queries about the cells, a lot of our time and effort will be diverted into just making sure that technology and the cells are transferred to people.'' The NIH said yesterday it is planning a far less ambitious registry, which would list the stem cells available and contact information to obtain them. ''We really have done no thinking about a repository,'' said Lana Skirboll, the agency's associate director of science policy. Skirboll said that so far, only BresaGen had raised concerns with federal officials about an inability to distribute the cells. But she said, ''I can imagine others might do that.'' And she said the NIH will need to listen to difficulties that companies and institutes, spread across three continents, might have in providing the material and in producing enough of it. BresaGen, whose parent office is in Adelaide, Australia, derived four stem-cell lines over the past year but has yet to distribute them. It is one of three companies identified by the NIH as sources of what the agency estimates to be 60 lines in the world that would meet standards set out by Bush last week. But there is mounting uncertainty on how those cells would be distributed. In the United States, only the University of Wisconsin, which holds the patents to embryonic stem cells first derived in 1998, has a formal arrangement to provide them to researchers. Other sources of stem cells, like the University of California-San Francisco, have yet to establish any procedures. Adding to the confusion, scientists and researchers are familiar with fewer than half of the NIH's estimate of 60 lines. The agency has said that, in addition to lines derived in the United States and Israel, others are available in India, Sweden, Singapore, and Australia. It has declined to disclose the specific sources of those lines, citing private companies' concerns over their confidential research. The distribution of the cells will prove crucial to the eventual success of embryonic stem-cell research, which remains in its infancy. The lines, which can develop into any of the body's more than 200 types of cells, hold promise for therapies to treat heart disease, spinal cord injury, diabetes, and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. The NIH expects to begin issuing grants in January. But for now, it will be up to scientists to obtain the cells for their research. ''We're going to need help from the NIH or some other foundation to allow the distribution of these cell lines,'' Robins said. ''Our infrastructure is not going to allow us to offer the cell lines in a timely manner to hundreds of different laboratories.'' For academic scientists, who are typically more involved in the basic research funded by the NIH, BresaGen suggests an actual bank for the cells: The agency would take possession of stem cells, use its own resources to grow them in numbers needed for research, handle the quality control, and then oversee their distribution. The material transfer agreement with researchers would be standardized, probably giving the company that owns the lines the first right to license any breakthroughs. ''We think that's a pretty fair deal,'' Robins said. Anthony Shadid can be reached by e-mail at [log in to unmask] This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 8/17/2001. SOURCE: The Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/229/nation/Biotech_firm_suggests_a_stem_cell_bank+.shtml * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn