BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - The UK has launched a network to coordinate all research and translation efforts in stem cells across the country.

The UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN) hopes to bring coherence to an increasingly diffuse body of researchers, with the overall aim of enhancing basic research and speeding translation through to the clinic. The new body will not sponsor research, nor will it replace existing regional networks.

The UKNSCN was launched by science minister Malcolm Wicks who said it would make it easier for people to work together and share technology. "I'm sure it will help us as we strive to maintain the UK's place as a world leader in this area of science."

Backed by the most liberal regulatory regime in the world, strong government financial support and fierce competition between regions, the UK has spawned numerous national and regional stem cell initiatives. Those include the Wellcome Center for Stem Cell Research in Cambridge, the Center for Life in Newcastle, the Institute for Stem Cell Research in Edinburgh and the National Stem Cell Bank.

Scotland, in particular, harbors strong ambitions in the field, and the country has set up its own Scottish Stem Cell Network. There are other networks in the north of England and London.

In addition to trying to focus disparate efforts and improve communications between sub disciplines, the UKNSCN will be responsible for informing the general public. The network hopes also to be the single voice of stem cell science to government and policy makers.

Naren Patel, chair of the new organization said, "We have to ensure as we move closer to real applications that all our scientists are pulling together."

The overwhelming support given by the public to the adoption of a liberal regime allowing therapeutic cloning is being undermined by current debate over whether to license research in mammal/human hybrid cloning. That involves using the enucleated oocyte from a mammal, such as a cow or a rabbit, as the vehicle for an adult human cell.

Scientists have applied for licenses that create such clones, both to increase their expertise in generating cloned embryos without using up the rare resource of human eggs, and to produce cell lines encoding for inherited diseases, for use in drug discovery.

The government has said it will legislate to ban the hybrid clone research, but is now facing fierce lobbying from scientists, patients groups and medical research charities.

Patel said the UKNSCN will be involved in attempts to influence public opinion. "We need to make sure that the government and the public know about the excellent stem cell research being done in labs all over the UK, and that we maintain the support needed to keep the UK at the forefront."

The UKNSCN has been set up in response to a government review of the field carried out in 2005. It will be funded by four of the UK's research councils.