NSCC, Stem Cell Sciences to team up on ES cell lines

Stem Cell Sciences (SCS), the former Melbourne company now based in the UK, is to collaborate with Australia's National Stem Cell Centre on new human embryonic stem cell lines to be derived by SCS and Melbourne IVF.

SCS is planning to derive six embryonic stem cell lines in collaboration with Melbourne IVF, under the licensing guidelines set out by the NHMRC last year. The cell lines will be characterised and distributed in partnership with the NSCC, which will make them available to researchers without restrictions through its major national research facility division.

"Stem Cell Sciences doesn't have the ability for this... [so] it makes sense that the NSCC has some ownership of the cell lines," said SCS group general manager Hugh Ilyine. "The interest we have is to see the lines distributed, but not released willy-nilly. We want them to be used properly."

It is expected that the cell lines, which will not be developed under GMP conditions, will take about two years to derive, characterise and expand for distribution.

NSCC chief operating officer Dr Dianna DeVore said the organisation would develop the infrastructure to get the cells to researchers without encumbrance by intellectual property rights.

"That's what being an MNRF is really about," she said. "It's a really nice fit -- in terms of collaborations and potential for international collaboration it's really great."

Monash University researcher Assoc Prof Martin Pera will spearhead the NSCC's effort.

Ilyine said the collaboration would enhance SCS's network of research. The company, which recently moved its headquarters to the UK, has subsidiaries in Melbourne, Edinburgh and Kobe, Japan. "It gives SCS, as a global company, the opportunity to continue to invest in Australia," Ilyine said.