UK Stem Cell Bank research
The UK Stem Cell Bank research programme is focused on the standardisation and improvement of methods for culture, characterisation and preservation of human pluripotent stem cell lines (hPSCs) and derivatives.
The UK Stem Cell Bank is involved in several research collaborations in this area and welcome enquiries from academic groups or commercial organisations working on projects relating to hPSCs. If you are interested in collaborating with us, please contact us at enquiries@ukstemcellbank.org.uk.
Under the Code of Practice for the use of Human Stem Cell Lines (2010) and in line with MHRA policy, we do not conduct discovery research on stem cell lines deposited in the UK Stem Cell Bank in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
Our projects
MRC-funded cell banking (Jan 2018 – Dec 2020)
In 2018 the Medical Research Council (MRC) awarded the UK Stem Cell Bank a £2.1 million grant to continue to support the development of the clinical grade cell line programme, which aims to distribute ‘regulator-ready’ stem cell lines for research and clinical applications. Read more about this project.
Stem-cell based Standards and Reference reagents
Using NIBSC’s in-house expertise in biological standardisation, the Bank is developing stem-cell based standards and reference reagents. This includes material for flow cytometry identity assessment of hPSCs and Mesenchymal Stem Cell products, to facilitate the validation and verification of specific cell populations used in cell-based therapies. These reagents will support the assessment of batch to batch consistency of stem cell-based products and harmonisation of cell-based therapies.
The European Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry (hPSCreg)
The UK Stem Cell Bank is an active partner of the human Pluripotent Stem Cell registry, a freely accessible global registry for human pluripotent stem cell lines. hPSCreg is an open platform for coordination and cooperation in the area of hPSC research and application funded by the European Commission.
Assuring the safety of cell therapies
Supported by Innovate UK’s medicine and manufacturing fund, the UK Stem Cell Bank is collaborating with ReNeuron to use powerful new single cell transcriptomics technology to facilitate the manufacture of innovative therapies and address concerns about their quality and safety. Find out more about this collaboration.
Our publications
2019 publications
Saraiva L, Wang L, Kammel M, Kummrow A, Atkinson E, Lee JY, Yalcinkaya B, Akgöz M, Höckner J, Ruf A, Engel A, Zhang YZ, O’Shea O, Sassi MP, Divieto C, Lekishvili T, Campbell J, Liu Y, Wang J, Stebbings R, Gaigalas AK, Rigsby P, Neukammer J, Vessillier S. Comparison of Volumetric and Bead-Based Counting of CD34 Cells by Single-Platform. Flow Cytometry. Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2019 Feb 20. doi: 10.1002/cyto.b.21773
2018 publications
Sullivan S, Stacey GN, Akazawa C, Aoyama N, Baptista R, Bedford P, Bennaceur Griscelli A, Chandra A, Elwood N, Girard M, Kawamata S, Hanatani T, Latsis T, Lin S, Ludwig TE, Malygina T, Mack A, Mountford JC, Noggle S, Pereira LV, Price J, Sheldon M, Srivastava A, Stachelscheid H, Velayudhan SR, Ward NJ, Turner ML, Barry J, Song J. Quality control guidelines for clinical-grade human induced pluripotent stem cell lines. Regen Med. 2018 Sep 12. doi: 10.2217/rme-2018-0095.
Abbot S, Agbanyo F, Ahlfors JE, Baghbaderani BA, Bartido S, Bharti K, Burke C, Carlsson B, Cavagnaro J, Creasey A, DiGiusto D, Francissen K, Gaffney A, Goldring C, Gorba T, Griffiths E, Hanatani T, Hayakawa T, Heki T, Hoogendoorn K, Kawamata S, Kimura H, Kirkeby A, Knezevic I, Lebkowski J, Lin S, Lin-Gibson S, Lubiniecki A, O’Shea O, Pera M, Petricciani J, Pigeau G, Ratcliffe A, Sato Y, Schumann GG, Shingleton W, Stacey Chair G, Sullivan S, Svendsen CN, Trouvin JH, Vandeputte J, Yuan BZ, Zoon K. Report of the international conference on manufacturing and testing of pluripotent stem cells. Biologicals. 2018 Aug 24. pii: S1045-1056(18)30264-1. doi: 10.1016/j.biologicals.2018.08.004.
Allison T, Andrews P, Avior Y, Barbaric I, Benvenisty N, Bock C, Brehm J, Brüstle O, Damjanov I, Elefanty A, Felkner D, Gokhale P, Halbritter F, Healy L, Xiaoming Hu T, Knowles B, Loring J, Ludwig T, Mayberry R, Mohamed JS, Miacallef S, Müller FJ, Mummery C, Nakatsuji N, Ng E, Oh SKW, O’Shea O, Pera M, Reubinoff B, Robson P, Rossant J, Schuldt B, Solter D, Sourris K, Stacey G, Stanley E, Suemori H, Takahashi K, and Yamanaka S, Assessment of established techniques to determine developmental and malignant potential of human pluripotent stem cells", Nature Commun, 2018 May 15;9(1):1925. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04011-3.
Kurtz A, Seltmann S, Bairoch A, Bittner MS, Bruce K, Capes-Davis A, Clarke L, Crook JM, Daheron L, Dewender J, Faulconbridge A, Fujibuchi W, Gutteridge A, Hei DJ, Kim YO, Kim JH, Kokocinski AK, Lekschas F, Lomax GP, Loring JF, Ludwig T, Mah N, Matsui T, Müller R, Parkinson H, Sheldon M, Smith K, Stachelscheid H, Stacey G, Streeter I, Veiga A, Xu RH. (2018) A Standard Nomenclature for Referencing and Authentication of Pluripotent Stem Cells. Stem Cell Reports. 10(1):1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.12.002.
For a full list of UK Stem Cell Bank publications see UK Stem Cell Bank research publications [PDF, 84KB]