Despite the restrictions and controversy confronting stem cell research, labs around the world continue to derive new human embryonic stem cell lines and make them available to the global research community. The EU-funded Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry (hESCreg) seeks to bring order to the growing number of available stem cell lines and the flood of related data, beginning with the cell lines created in European labs. The web-based registry, launched in January 2008 and accessible at http://www.hescreg.eu, aims to serve as a one-stop source of information about the origins and traits of these cell lines. Anna Veiga, the hESCreg scientific coordinator and director of the stem cell bank at the Centre of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, talks with Doug Sipp about how the project was conceived and where it might lead.
