Science, Technology, Environment & Resources - Internet Resources

Biotechnology and Health (Includes Stem Cells)

Biotechnology and Health| Stem Cells

Biotechnology and Health

See also Agriculture and Agricultural Biotechnology

Australia

Commonwealth

• Australian Research Council funds bioscience research centres within Centres of Research Excellence and Special Research Centres
• Bioregs Online Provides links to Commonwealth agencies involved in biotechnology regulation
• Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation Biotechnology
• Department of Environment and Heritage Biotechnology and Gene Technology
• National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Human embryos and cloning, Human research ethics and Research
• Office of the Gene Technology Regulator
• Productivity Commission Public support for research and innovation
• Therapeutic Goods Administration, The regulation of human tissues and emerging biological therapies
• Therapeutic Goods Administration, 'Recombinant biologicals' in Australian regulatory guidelines for prescription medicines.
  

States

• New South Wales Office of Science and Medical Research Lists research funding, research directories and Commonwealth and State regulatory frameworks for biotechnologies
• Queensland Office of Biotechnology and Therapeutic Medicines and Devices, and Queensland Biotechnology Directory
• Victoria Science Technology and Innovation - Biotechnology

Research Bodies

• Australian Proteome Analysis Facility
• Australian Stem Cell Centre
• Cooperative Research Centre Medical Science and Technology

Organisations

• AusBiotech Peak organisation for the biotechnology industry with links organisations and research institutes under AUSMEDTECH and Human Health
• Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Biomedical technology ATSE Focus June 2008 and Stem cell technology ATSE Focus March 2007
• Australian Society for Medical Research
• Healthy Development Adelaide
• Research Australia

Resources

• Australian Biotechnology 2008 Directory of Australian Biotechnology
• 'Australian biotechnology, Special report', Nature biotechnology supplement,pp. S1 - S12, 1 January 2006.

International Bodies

• The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology An international organisation dedicated to advanced research and training in molecular biology and biotechnology, with special regard to the needs of the developing world
• International Stem Cell Forum Includes national agencies involved in stem cell matters including Australia’s NHMRC

International – Other Countries

• Canada Government BioPortal
• Canadian Institute of Health Research CIHR website
• New Zealand Independent Biotechnology Advisory Council
• New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology Biotechnology
• UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
• UK Department of Health Stem cell web page. Includes links to key government stem cell documents
• UK Department of Health Biotechnology contacts including the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority
• UK Human Genetics Commission
• UK Human Tissue Authority
• US California Institute for Regenerative Medicine The state stem cell agency
• US CRS Report for Congress Stem cell research: Federal research funding and oversight: April 2007
• US National Center for Biotechnology Information
• US National Institutes of Health Office of Biotechnology Activities

Organisations

• EuroStem Cell
• UK National Stem Cell Network
• UK Stem Cell Bank

Resources

• Nature Biotechnology
• Nature reports Stem cells
• The Stem Cell From The Stanford Center of Biomedical Ethics
• BUBL Biotechnology Links British academic site with links to web resources
• Yahoo Biotechnology

Stem Cells

Legislation

• Legislation governing the use of therapeutic cloning in Australia, the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and the Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Act 2006 (Amendment Act), came into force on 12 June 2007. The Act was passed in December 2006.
• The COAG Communique of 13 April 2007 reported that under the intergovernmental agreement the Commonwealth, States and the Australian Capital Territory agreed to commit to nationally-consistent arrangements for the prohibition of human cloning for reproduction and the regulation of human embryo research; the jurisdictions agreeing to introduce matching legislation by 12 June 2008.
• The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) web site Human embryos and cloning provides background and operational information about the management of human stem cells and therapeutic cloning in Australia. Their web site contains links to:
  The updated 2007 National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research
  The updated 2007 Ethical guidelines on the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in clinical research

State

30 September 2008 - At the end of the reporting period, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania,
Queensland and the ACT had all passed amending complementary legislation.
During the reporting period South Australia tabled relevant legislation. The
Western Australian Legislative Assembly defeated the proposed Human
Reproductive Technology Amendment Bill 2007.
Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT have had their legislation declared
as a corresponding law by the Minister responsible for the Research Involving
Human Embryos Act 2002.
The relevant State and Territory legislation is as follows:

Victoria
Infertility Treatment Amendment Act 2007

New South Wales
Human Cloning and Other Prohibited Practices Amendment Act 2007

Tasmania
Human Cloning and Other Prohibited Practices Amendment Act 2007

Queensland
Research Involving Human Embryos and Prohibition of Human Cloning Amendment Act 2007

ACT
Human Cloning and Embryo Research Amendment Act 2008

South Australia

Statutes Amendment (Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and Regulation of Research Involving Human Embryos) Act 2009

Western Australia

Useful Web Links

Australia

• National Health and Medical Research Council
• Lockhart Review. On 17 June 2005, the former Minister for Ageing, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, appointed a Legislative Review Committee to examine the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002. The chair was The Hon John S Lockhart AO QC. The reports were released in December 2005. The Committee made 54 recommendations. Analysis of advice on developments in assisted reproductive technology and related medical and scientific research was prepared for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and released in June 2006.
• Legislation and documentation relating to the Lockhart Review. A Senate Inquiry into the Legislative responses to Recommendations of the Lockhart Review followed. A Summary of the main proposed changes to the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 was prepared by the Law and Bills Digest Section, Parliamentary Library.

• Key recent advances in human embryonic stem cell research, A review of scientific literature commissioned by the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Government of Victoria

• Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research
• Australian Stem Cell Centre
• National Centre for Adult Stem Research

International

• International Society for Stem Cell Research
• Stem Cell Network Asia Pacific
• Stem cell policy. World stem cell map Comprehensive listing of country policies and resources
  

International - Other Countries

New Zealand

• Ministry of Research, Science and Technology Stem cell research in New Zealand, 2007

Singapore

• Singapore Includes links to the Agency for Science Technology and Research, the Biomedical Research Council, the Singapore Stem Cell Consortium and the Singapore Stem Cell Bank

United Kingdom

• The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority:
  • Human embryo research and How we regulate
  • HFEA Statement on its decision regarding hybrid embryos
  • HFEA Statement on Warwick University hybrid embryo research
• UK Human Stem Cell Bank
• UK Medical Research Council

Canada

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research
  • Updated guidelines for human pluripotent stem cell research, 29 June 2007
    

United States

• National Institutes of Health
  • Stem cell information.
• National Stem Cell Bank
• Judith J. Johnson & Erin D. Williams, Human cloning, CRS Report for Congress, 20 July 2006

Recent Stem Cell News

Australia

• Under the NSW/VIC Government Stem Cell Research Grant Program Australian scientists will compare stem cells derived from three sources, namely: stem cells obtained from excess human embryos, therapeutically cloned embryos and also induced pluripotent stem cells. ‘Local lab has big hopes for stem cells’, Age, 10 June 2008.
• ‘Olfactory mucosa is a potential source for autologous stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s Disease’, Stem cells, 5 June 2008.
• 'Stemcell veto damages WA reputation', West Australian, 10 May 2008, p. 18.
• 'A seismic shift for stem cell research', Science, vol. 319, 1 February 2008, pp. 560 - 563.
  

Induced Pluripotent stem cells

• An American and a Japanese team of scientists, led by Thomson and Yamanaka respectively, demonstrated that induced pluripotent stem cells could be obtained from adult human skin cells. When refined, in the future, this has the potential to replace the need to obtain stem cells from embryos as problems such as cancer risks are eliminated. ‘Induced pluropotent stem cell lines derived from human somatic cells’, Science, vol. 318, no. 5858, 21 December 2007, pp. 1917-1920 and ‘Induction of pluripotent stem cells from adult human fibroblasts by defined factors’, Cell, November 30 2007, pp. 606-8507.
• ‘Embryo-free stem cell research gets an advance’ Cell news, June 2008
• ‘Hurdles remain for new stem cell technology’, msbc.msn.com, 21 November 2007
  

Embryonic Stem Cells

• Bionews - aims to provide balanced and timely news
• 'Embryonic stem cells used to create insulin-producing cells', Bionews, 26 February 2008
• ‘FDA delays first clinical trial of embryonic stem cells’, New York Times,15 May 2008
• ‘Scientists grow beating heart muscle tissue’, BioNews, 26 October 2009
• ‘Parthenotes as a source of embryonic stem cells’, Cell prolif., vol. 41, suppl 1, February 2008, pp. 20-30
• ‘Producing primate embryonic stem cells by somatic nuclear transfer’, Nature, vol. 450, no. 7169, November 22 2007, pp. 407-502
• ‘The possible impact of human embryonic stem cells on safety pharmacological and toxicological assessments in drug discovery and drug development’, Curr. stem cell res. Ther,. vol. 3, no. 2, May 2008, pp. 118-31
  

Adult stem cells

• ‘Adult stem cells and their trans-differentiation potential –perspectives and therapeutic applications’, Journal of molecular medicine, July 16 2008
• ‘Recent progress on tissue-resident adult stem cell biology and their therapeutic implications’, Stem cell review, vol. 4, no. 1, March 2008, pp. 27-49
• ‘Stem cells: a revolution in therapeutics-recent advances in stem cell biology and their therapeutic applications in regenerative medicine and cancer therapies’, Clin. Pharmacol. Ther., vol. 82, no. 3, September 2007, pp. 252 – 264
  

Human hybrid embryos

• ‘UK team creates human hybrid embryos’, Bionews, 7 April 2008 and ‘Human/animal hybrid embryos are ‘easy’ to make’, BioNews, 23 June 2008
• ‘Activation of human embryonic gene expression in cytoplasmic hybrid embryos constructed between bovine oocytes and human fibroblasts’, Cloning stem cells, June 25 2008

Further References

• Karen, Tumulty, Nancy Gibbs, & Sonja Steptoe, 'Stem cells. The hope and the hype', Time, 7 August 2006, pp. 27–35
  • 'Making sense of stem cells'
  • 'The politics of science'
  • 'The brawl in California'
• Jo Marchant, 'Human eggs supply ‘ethical’ stem cells', Nature, vol. 441, no. 7097, 29 June 2006, p.1038
• 'Stem cells', Nature Insight, vol. 441 no. 7097, 29 June 2006, pp.1059–1102, Includes articles:
  • Austin Smith, 'A glossary of stem-cell biology', (p.1060)
  • K. Hochedlinger & R. Jaenisch, 'Nuclear reprogramming and pluripotency'—a particularly good, but very technical summary by Jaenisch, a key player, about obstacles faced by scientists for each of the major avenues for obtaining human embryonic stem cells (p.1061–1067)
  • O. Lindvall & Z. Kokaia, 'Stem cells for the treatment of neurological disorders' (p.1094–1096)
  • D. Srivastava & K.N. Ivey, 'Potential of stem-cell-based therapies for heart disease' (p. 1097–1099)
  • C. Bordignon, 'Stem-cell therapies for blood diseases' (p. 1100–1102)
• Carina Dennis, 'Clinical-use stem cells made in Singapore: lines designed for safe use in humans make their debut', news@nature.com, published online 26 July 2006.
• Hane Smith, William Neaves & Steven Teitelbaum, 'Letter: Adult stem cell treatments for diseases?', Science, 28 July 2006, vol. 313, no. 5786, p. 439
  • includes references to claims that applications of adult stem cells provide treatments for 65 human illnesses by David A. Prentice, Family Research Council, and posted on the website of the DoNoHarm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics.
• 'The lure of stem cell lines', Nature, v 442, n 7101, 2006, pp. 336–337
  • Nature investigates what human embryonic stem-cell lines have been derived worldwide so far, and why scientists are so desperate to work with new ones.
• 'Ethical' stem cell lines created, BBC News, 23 August 2006 and
  • Irina Klimanskaya, Young Chung, Sandy Becker, Shi-Jiang Lu & Robert Lanza, 'Human embryonic stem cell lines derived from single blastomeres', Nature, 24 August 2006, v.442(858
• Helen Pearson, 'Early embryos can yield stem cells ... and survive', Nature, 24 August 2006, v. 442(858)
• M. Azim Surani and Anne McLaren, 'Stem cells: a new route to rejuvenation', Nature, 21 September 2006, v. 443(7109), pp. 284-285
  

Parliamentary Library Publications

• The Parliamentary Library's Law Internet Resource Guide HEALTH LAW
• Stem cell research—the science: in support of Lockhart Speaker: Professor Bob Williamson FRS – Professor of Medical Genetics, University of Melbourne [MP3 44.9MB]
• Stem cell research—the science: a sceptical perspective on Lockhart Speaker: T. John Martin FRS – Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne [MP3 50.4]
• Therapeutic cloning: the pros and cons, Background Note, Last Updated: 28 March 2006.
• The United Nations’ Declaration on Human Cloning: Australia’s international and domestic stances, Background Note, Last Updated: 2 February 2006.
• Research use of embryos in other countries, Background Note Last Updated: 3 October 2006
  
  

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