London

Embryonic stem-cell research in Britain is expected to gain impetus from the opening on 19 May of a purpose-built stem-cell bank, just north of London. But despite generous funding and a regulatory framework carefully crafted to encourage the studies, researchers still face obstacles.

Britain established a framework to permit work on stem cells in 2001, but research has moved more slowly than some in the field anticipated. However, biologists are confident that work will go ahead, now support systems are in place.

Britain's approach contrasts with that of the United States, where work on only certain embryonic stem-cell lines gets federal funding. But the difference has yet to set off a flurry of activity in Britain — or to spark a ‘brain drain’ of US cell biologists, scientists say.

“Stem-cell research is definitely progressing,” says Stephen Minger, a researcher in the field at King's College London, “but it's incredibly difficult work. I think the bank will accelerate things.”

Minger is one of the first to donate an embryonic stem-cell line to the new bank, which will house embryonic, adult and fetal stem-cell lines, and is located at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, Potters Bar.

The bank will make cell lines available to researchers worldwide, and provide British scientists with technical assistance in making use of the lines. Research agencies have allocated £40 million (US$72 million) over three years to support its work.

Anne McLaren, who works on mouse stem cells at the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, says that researchers are still struggling with the technical and regulatory challenges of stem-cell work.

Before deriving cell lines, researchers must obtain a licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which takes about a year. Ten research groups have obtained these so far. After that, cell lines take several months to derive. “It does require a certain determination to get through the process,” says Robert Terry, a policy adviser at the Wellcome Trust, Europe's largest research charity.

Austin Smith at the Institute for Stem Cell Research in Edinburgh, who obtained the first licence to derive embryonic stem cells, thinks activity in the field will soon pick up. “Things are starting in a serious way,” he says.