Drug company GlaxoSmithKline is setting up a US$25-million, five-year collaboration with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The money will support research as well as a staff exchange programme between the two partners.

Announced on 24 July, the programme is another sign of the pharmaceutical industry's growing interest in stem-cell research, once considered the domain of academics and small biotechnology companies.

The Harvard collaboration is also the latest in a spate of academic collaborations launched by the UK-based drug firm. On 21 July, the company unveiled its 'academic incubator' collaboration with the University of Cambridge, UK, which will give researchers in neuroscience and metabolic disorders a more direct role in the early clinical development of treatments for addiction and obesity.