hESCreg newsletter, 2nd issue
(June 22, 2009)
What is new in the hESCreg database?
The European Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry – hESCreg, to date holds comprehensive information on 621 hESC lines that have been derived in Europe and worldwide. The latest additions originate from the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, the University Hospital of Montpellier, France, and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
See the current maps of hESC derivation in Europe and worldwide
What is new in the legal framework of hESC research
In July 2009 the international stem cell community awaits the final "Guidelines for Human Stem Cell research" in the USA announced by the NIH in response to President Obama’s Executive Order 13505. For this reason we interviewed Dr. Derek Hei, Technical Director, Waisman Clinical Biomanufacturing Facility, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA.
hESCreg asked: What will happen with already existing privately funded US hESC lines derived from supernumerary IVF embryos? Is it allowed for US researchers to work with such hESC lines in NIH funded projects from July 2009 on? If not, what will happen with these "left over" US hESC lines?
Dr. Hei: The status of hESC lines that were derived with private funding will not be clear until NIH has finalized the new National Institutes of Health Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research. The current draft contains specific eligibility criteria for the use of hESC lines in NIH-funded research including documentation regarding embryo donation and informed consent. Each hESC will need to be reviewed to determine whether the informed consent associated with the cell line meets the final eligibility criteria. The lines that don't meet the new eligibility criteria may continue to be used in research that is not funded by NIH.
hESCreg asked: Executive order 13435 of June 20, 2007, which supplements the August 9, 2001, statement on human embryonic stem cell research, is revoked. What will be the consequences for US research?
Dr. Hei: Executive Order 13435 was intended to encourage NIH to expand funding in the area of new derivation methods for pluripotent stem cells, such as iPS cells. Clearly the recent breakthroughs in methods for creating iPS cells have advanced this field tremendously over the past year. NIH has continued to support research in this area and is likely to do so in the future as well. I don't think that there will be much impact on iPS cell research in the future.
hESCreg asked: Would you be so kind to describe the prospective collaboration between US researchers and European researchers?
Dr. Hei: Going forward, collaboration between US and European researchers will likely be dictated by the funding source(s) for the project and the proposed cell lines. Clearly a situation could exist where cell lines that may be used in one laboratory may not be used in a collaborator's lab. This situation currently exists for many cell lines. However, if the current NIH Registry Lines are no longer allowed for use in NIH-funded research, we could have a situation where the number of cell lines that meet requirements for both US and Europe researchers may be very limited.
hESCreg: Thank you Dr. Hei for this valuable comment.
hESCreg members in the spotlight
We would like to introduce you to Dr. Maneesha Inamdar – a new hESCreg SAB member who will also act as national contact for hESCreg in India.
Maneesha Inamdar´s main research topics are embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and their cardiovascular derivatives. Her current studies are focused on understanding mechanisms that control cardiovascular development using ESCs and mutant mice.
She has recently derived two new sibling human embryonic stem cell (hES) lines from discarded embryos which are called BJNhem19 and BJNhem20. They have been deposited in the UK Stem Cell Bank and are also listed on the European hESC registry.
Dr. Maneesha Inamdar obtained her master´s degree in biotechnology at the University of Poona, Pune, India in 1989, and her PhD in molecular biology at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research at Mumbai, India in 1995. Between 1995 and 1997 she conducted her post-doctoral studies in cardiovascular biology at the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. In 1999 she became an assistant professor and since 2006 she is an associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research at Bangalore, India.
She works as a co-ordinator at the Training and Research Facility for Human Embryonic Stem and Human Embryonic Carcinoma Cells at JNCASR, Bangalore, funded by the Department of Biotechnology, govt. of India and is a founder member of the Stem Cell Research Forum of India (SCRFI). She is also a representative participant (India) for the International Stem Cell Banking Initiative of ISCF and for the International Stem Cell Initiative project.
In the past years she was honored with the following awards and honors:
1989 Gold medal- First rank in M.Sc. Biotechnology, University of Poona, Pune
1989 Merit rank certificate- CSIR-UGC research fellowship, government of India
1991 UNESCO/TWAS short-term fellowship in the Human Genome Project
1992 European Cell Biology Organization fellowship to attend the 5th International Congress on Cell Biology held at Madrid, Spain.
1993 Best Oral Presentation - International symposium of Indian Society of Developmental Biologists
1994 Carl Zeiss Award for the Embryology course at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, USA
1994 Development Travelling Fellowship and Journal of Cell Science Travelling Fellowship
1999- 2002 Young Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences
2000 ISRO bursary grant
2001 Welcome Trust Travel Award 2001
2003 Welcome Trust Travel Award 2003
Please find two of her relevant and recent publications below:
Derivation and characterization of two sibling human embryonic stem cell lines from discarded grade III embryos. Inamdar MS, Venu P, Srinivas MS, Rao K, VijayRaghavan K. Stem Cells Dev. 2009 Apr; 18(3):423-33.
Human BCAS3 Expression in Embryonic Stem Cells and Vascular Precursors Suggests a Role in Human Embryogenesis and Tumor Angiogenesis. Siva K, Venu P, Mahadevan A, Shankar K S, Inamdar MS. PLoS ONE. 2007 Nov 21; 2(11):e1202.
Members of the hESCreg management are attending the following meetings:
Asia BioForum, Seoul, Korea, 17 June 2009
Bangalore Bio 2009, Bangalore, India, 18 - 20 June 2009
25th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology (ESHRE), Amsterdam, Netherlands, 28 June - 01 July 2009
ISSCR 7th Annual Meeting, Barcelona, Spain, 8 - 11 July 2009
2009 BSRT International Summer School on Innovative Approaches in Regenerative Medicine, Berlin, Germany, 18 July -
02 August 2009
2nd Biannual Congress of the Society of Reproductive Medicine, Antalya, Turkey, 01 – 04 September 2009
2nd European Congress of Immunology BCRT - WORKSHOP: ‘Crosstalks between Stem Cells / Stem Cell Derivatives and Immune Cells’, Berlin, Germany, 16 September 2009
2nd Congress of Physiological Sciences of Serbia with International Participation,
Kragujevac, Serbia, 17 - 20 September 2009
Biotechnica, Hannover, Germany, 6 - 8 October 2009
Workshop “Selective ART Today”, Paris, France, 09 – 11 October 2009
World Health Summit, Berlin, Germany, 15 - 18 October 2009
4. World Conference on Regenerative Medicine, Leipzig, Germany, 29 - 31 October 2009
36th. Symposium Fertility 2009, Barcelona, Spain, 02 November 2009
2nd Combined Meeting 2009 at REBIRTH, Hannover, Germany, 20 - 25 November 2009
World Congress on Fertility Preservation, Brussels, Belgium, 10 – 12 December 2009
Relevant publications:
Modeling human germ cell development with embryonic stem cells. Clark AT, Reijo Pera RA. Regen Med. 2006 Jan; 1(1):85-93.
Production of offspring from a germline stem cell line derived from neonatal ovaries. Zou K, Yuan Z, Yang Z, Luo H, Sun K, Zhou L, Xiang J, Shi L, Yu Q, Zhang Y, Hou R, Wu J. Nat Cell Biol. 2009 May; 11(5):631-6. Epub 2009 Apr 12.
Disease-corrected haematopoietic progenitors from Fanconi anaemia induced pluripotent stem cells. Raya A, Rodríguez-Pizà I, Guenechea G, Vassena R, Navarro S, Barrero MJ, Consiglio A, Castellà M, Río P, Sleep E, González F, Tiscornia G, Garreta E, Aasen T, Veiga A, Verma IM, Surrallés J, Bueren J, Belmonte JC. Nature. 2009 May 31. [Epub ahead of print]
Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells by direct delivery of reprogramming proteins. Kim D, Kim CH, Moon JI, Chung YG, Chang MY, Han BS, Ko S, Yang E, Cha KY, Lanza R, Kim KS. Cell Stem Cell. 2009 Jun 5; 4(6):472-6. Epub 2009 May 28.
Generation of rat and human induced pluripotent stem cells by combining genetic reprogramming and chemical inhibitors. Li W, Wei W, Zhu S, Zhu J, Shi Y, Lin T, Hao E, Hayek A, Deng H, Ding S. Cell Stem Cell. 2009 Jan 9; 4(1):16-9. Epub 2008 Dec 18.
