MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Leaders of national embryonic stem cell banks in the United States and the United Kingdom met here, in the birthplace of the field, on Monday and pledged to work together to promote research.
Representatives of the two banks said they were discussing ways to more efficiently distribute each other's cells to scientists and new standards to improve the quality of cells available.
The discussion came as Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and leaders of the National Stem Cell Bank in Madison hosted a U.K. delegation that included the director of the U.K. Stem Cell Bank and chairman of the U.K. oversight committee on stem cell research.
At a news conference, the leaders said they hoped the efforts were the beginning of a long partnership between the banks. While stem cell research is still in its early stages, scientists believe it may eventually lead to treatment and perhaps cures for diseases such as Parkinson's and juvenile diabetes.
"This is not about one side, one state or one country winning and one losing," Doyle said. "This is about a huge area of scientific research that is expanding rapidly around the world, that we in Wisconsin happen to find ourselves in a leadership position."
The government-funded U.K. bank opened in 2004 as a repository for stem cells derived from embryos and adults. Its American counterpart was created the following year at WiCell Research Institute, a nonprofit connected to the University of Wisconsin, under a federal contract.
The U.S. bank houses and distributes 13 of the 21 embryonic stem cell lines that can be used in federally funded research under President Bush's policy limiting support to lines created before 2001. Wisconsin researcher James Thomson isolated the first of those lines in 1998.
Stem cells are created in the first days after conception. Because they go on to form the body's tissues and cells, scientists say they could unlock the mystery of many diseases and one day lead to cures.
But some people oppose the research because days-old embryos - usually leftover from fertility treatments - are destroyed in the effort to isolate the cells.
The two banks said they would discuss international standards for how cells are ethically derived from human embryos and maintained.
"Our main focuses are very similar: we want to promote the research and the development of potential therapies in the future," said Glyn Stacey, director of the U.K. bank. "These are the kinds of issues we're talking about and trying to make appropriate cell lines available to researchers and for clinical trials as well."
Carl Gulbrandsen, president of WiCell, said the two would discuss joint distribution of each other's cell lines. His group has already reached distribution agreements with some overseas companies.
"Shipping stem cell lines overseas is no easy task, hoping they arrive, they are healthy and can be used," he said.
But even as the banks work together, U.K. and American scientists will be operating under very different restrictions. U.K. researchers are allowed to clone embryos to extract stem cells and can qualify for government funding for such work.
In the U.S., some states have outlawed therapeutic cloning. And while the new Democratic Congress is trying to loosen Bush's restrictions, no federal money is now available for cloning embryos or new stem cell lines.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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