UMass-UK sign stem cell agreement
Kim Haberlin/Office of the Governor
Joseph C. Laning (left), senior director of the UMass Human Stem Cell Bank and Registry, and Dr. Stephen Inglis, director of the UK Health Protection Agency’s National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, sign agreement to share best practices for stem cell banking.
Representatives of the University of Massachusetts Human Stem Cell Bank and Registry and the United Kingdom Stem Cell Bank signed an agreement today to share best practices for stem cell banking.
The two parties, acting during part of Governor Deval Patrick's trade mission to Israel and the United Kingdom, also agreed to collaborate on standards for stem cell line characterization, production, and distribution in the US and UK.
The agreement was signed after Patrick met with Glyn Stacey, director of the UK Stem Cell Bank, at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control in Hertfordshire, England.
It also follows a similar memorandum of understanding signed last week between Massachusetts and Israel for further collaboration in research and development programs between Bay State and Israeli companies.
The UMass Human Stem Cell Bank and Registry and the UK Stem Cell Bank support international research in regenerative and stem cell medicine.
They provide the biomedical research community with expertly derived and maintained human embryonic stem cell lines for fundamental biological investigation and therapeutic applications.
The banks provide high-quality, reliable stem cell lines to researchers working on discovering new therapeutic treatments for diseases such as cancer, juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, among others.
Under the agreement, the two banks will identify shared priorities and create models that foster collaboration and cooperation.
Later in the day, the governor visited Granta Science Park in Cambridge to discuss plans to cultivate new investment and partnerships between the Massachusetts and UK life sciences sectors.
As he did last week in Israel, Patrick also hosted a roundtable discussion with researchers and industry leaders at Granta Science Park, where many UK-based life sciences companies are located.
Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.
About Political Intelligence
Glen Johnson is Politics Editor at boston.com and lead blogger for "Political Intelligence." He moved to Massachusetts in the fourth grade, and has covered local, state, and national politics for over 25 years. E-mail him at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen. |