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Thumbs Up For Stem Cell Bank Scientists applaud UK's 'superb' facilities but hope approval process speeds up By Pat Hagan May 20, 2004 The first scientists to deposit cell lines in the UK Stem Cell Bank have described the facilities as “superb” and applauded its staff for getting it off the ground so quickly. But they also hope the approval process speeds up—the first deposits took 6 months to clear—and they want key issues to be resolved as soon as possible, such as the recovery of costs and liability for any cell lines borrowed from the bank. The Medical Research Council (MRC), which partly funds the bank, officially declared it open for business earlier this week when it announced that two cell lines had been accepted for storage at its facilities in South Mimms, just north of London. The lines, which are both research grade rather than clinical grade material, have been supplied by King's College London and the Centre for Life in Newcastle, a nonprofit organization partly funded by the universities of Newcastle- upon-Tyne and Durham and Newcastle NHS Hospitals Trust. Declaring the bank open, Health Minister Lord Warner said: “This bank is the first of its kind in the world and confirms the UK's position as a leader in stem cell research.” “This potentially revolutionary research could benefit thousands of patients whose lives are blighted by devastating diseases such as Parkinson's, stroke, and Alzheimer's,” Warner said. Stephen Minger, director of the stem cell biology laboratory at King's College, told The Scientist: “The facilities are superb, absolutely world class. The fact that they have been able to put this together in 1 year is amazing.” But on the time it took to get the King's deposit sanctioned, Minger added: “It wasn't a particularly onerous process, but it did take a long time, about 6 months. I'm not sure why it took so long, and there was a lot of documentation required and a lot of going back and forth.” “Some of the delay was because they wanted to wait until the bank was fully credited and running,” Minger said. Alistair Balls, coordinator for the Centre for Life, said a major priority among scientists there was to thrash out details on exactly how organizations depositing cell lines in the bank will recover their costs from third parties, as well as the issue of who is liable once cell lines are put to therapeutic use. “There is quite a long way to go before we are at the point where a third party can draw on the bank's deposits,” he told The Scientist. “But we have not worked through in detail things like, on what terms cell lines will be available, or what happens, in terms of liability, when someone develops them to the point where they can actually be put into a human being.” Both King's College and the Centre for Life have applied to the MRC to upgrade their laboratories so they can produce clinical grade cell lines. The Newcastle center hopes to have a new facility up and running in 1 year, depending on how successful it is at raising the capital. If the MRC approves the grant, it will stump up 40% of the funding. However, Minger reckons the process at King's could take 2 to 3 years. “We want to upgrade our IVF [in vitro fertilization] laboratory and then build a new derivation center within that facility,” he said. “But it's quite an onerous process, and there are lots of restrictions.” A spokeswoman for the MRC said the bank was now fully equipped to store research grade and clinical grade material. Links for this article: UK Stem Cell Bank http://www.ukstemcellbank.org.uk/ Medical Research Council http://www.mrc.ac.uk/ King's College London http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ Centre for Life http://www.centreforlife.co.uk/ University of Newcastle upon Tyne http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ University of Durham http://www.dur.ac.uk/ A. Fazackerley, “UK stem cell bank ready to go,” The Scientist, September 18, 2003. http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030918/04/ SOURCE: Biomedcentral.com, UK http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040520/05/ * * * Thumbs Up For Stem Cell Bank Scientists applaud UK's 'superb' facilities but hope approval process speeds up By Pat Hagan May 20, 2004 The first scientists to deposit cell lines in the UK Stem Cell Bank have described the facilities as “superb” and applauded its staff for getting it off the ground so quickly. But they also hope the approval process speeds up—the first deposits took 6 months to clear—and they want key issues to be resolved as soon as possible, such as the recovery of costs and liability for any cell lines borrowed from the bank. The Medical Research Council (MRC), which partly funds the bank, officially declared it open for business earlier this week when it announced that two cell lines had been accepted for storage at its facilities in South Mimms, just north of London. The lines, which are both research grade rather than clinical grade material, have been supplied by King's College London and the Centre for Life in Newcastle, a nonprofit organization partly funded by the universities of Newcastle- upon-Tyne and Durham and Newcastle NHS Hospitals Trust. Declaring the bank open, Health Minister Lord Warner said: “This bank is the first of its kind in the world and confirms the UK's position as a leader in stem cell research.” “This potentially revolutionary research could benefit thousands of patients whose lives are blighted by devastating diseases such as Parkinson's, stroke, and Alzheimer's,” Warner said. Stephen Minger, director of the stem cell biology laboratory at King's College, told The Scientist: “The facilities are superb, absolutely world class. The fact that they have been able to put this together in 1 year is amazing.” But on the time it took to get the King's deposit sanctioned, Minger added: “It wasn't a particularly onerous process, but it did take a long time, about 6 months. I'm not sure why it took so long, and there was a lot of documentation required and a lot of going back and forth.” “Some of the delay was because they wanted to wait until the bank was fully credited and running,” Minger said. Alistair Balls, coordinator for the Centre for Life, said a major priority among scientists there was to thrash out details on exactly how organizations depositing cell lines in the bank will recover their costs from third parties, as well as the issue of who is liable once cell lines are put to therapeutic use. “There is quite a long way to go before we are at the point where a third party can draw on the bank's deposits,” he told The Scientist. “But we have not worked through in detail things like, on what terms cell lines will be available, or what happens, in terms of liability, when someone develops them to the point where they can actually be put into a human being.” Both King's College and the Centre for Life have applied to the MRC to upgrade their laboratories so they can produce clinical grade cell lines. The Newcastle center hopes to have a new facility up and running in 1 year, depending on how successful it is at raising the capital. If the MRC approves the grant, it will stump up 40% of the funding. However, Minger reckons the process at King's could take 2 to 3 years. “We want to upgrade our IVF [in vitro fertilization] laboratory and then build a new derivation center within that facility,” he said. “But it's quite an onerous process, and there are lots of restrictions.” A spokeswoman for the MRC said the bank was now fully equipped to store research grade and clinical grade material. Links for this article: UK Stem Cell Bank http://www.ukstemcellbank.org.uk/ Medical Research Council http://www.mrc.ac.uk/ King's College London http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ Centre for Life http://www.centreforlife.co.uk/ University of Newcastle upon Tyne http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ University of Durham http://www.dur.ac.uk/ A. Fazackerley, “UK stem cell bank ready to go,” The Scientist, September 18, 2003. http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030918/04/ SOURCE: Biomedcentral.com, UK http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040520/05/ * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn