Britain’s national stem cell bank should receive its first deposit of stem cell lines next year. The bank will be run jointly by the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC). It will hold existing and new adult, fetal, and embryonic stem cell lines in liquid nitrogen storage. The cells will be available to researchers in the UK and other countries once their research is granted approval by a steering committee. Academic researchers will have to pay a nominal fee for the lines, although commercial ventures will have to front the full economic cost. At least 70 stem cell lines are currently in existence and it is hoped that samples of all of these lines will be stored in the bank.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 9th September 2002
