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International move to boost stem cell research
A meeting of key leaders in stem cell research from eight countries, hosted by the UK’s Medical Research Council, has agreed on some initiatives to speed advances in the field and improve communication and collaboration among researchers (see report in 24 January issue of Science, p. 493). The programme will be driven forward by an international stem cell task force, the membership of which is expected to be announced within the next few weeks. Initiatives that were discussed include the setting up of a web site to catalogue information on stem cell lines and how to work with them, and detailing the various regulatory restrictions on their use. Researchers would also like to see an international repository of high-quality stem cell lines; just such a resource is currently being established in the UK and this may in time become the nucleus of an international collection. Moves are also afoot to agree on international standards for the characterisation of stem cells but these have proved more contentious.
Keywords: Research Methods/Standards, Stem Cells