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Stem Cell Assembly Line

Oct 03, 2011

The British government has given its approval for the creation of a £30 million stem cell therapy center, part of a £220 million program to turn British stem cell researchers' discoveries into "a new multimillion-pound industry to help drive Britain's recovery," reports the Guardian's Rupert Neate. The stem cell center, which is slated to open in April 2012, will take advantage of the UK's leadership in stem cell research, Neate says. The researchers will work to manufacture therapies for everything from Parkinson's disease to prostate cancer. A third of the money will come from the British government, another third from the European Union, and the rest from companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca, which are contracting to use part of the site where the center will be located. "It will have a test manufacturing facility to help labs convert a couple of grams of potentially life-saving cells into kilos of the stuff that can be sold commercially," David Bott, director of innovation at the Technology Strategy Board, tells Neate.

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