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Researchers in China, South Korea, and Singapore are testing the lead taken by Western countries in the field of stem cell research, the members of a UK government mission said on Monday (January 24).
Last September, the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) sent a group of leading figures from the field of stem cell science on a 2-week trip to the three Asian countries to assess the quality of science being done and to evaluate possible commercial opportunities.
What they saw was impressive, the members of the mission say in a report. "Researchers in China, Singapore, and South Korea are as talented as their UK counterparts. They are probably better funded and equipped. The perspective is more long term in all three countries than the UK," they write.
"It was high-quality science," said Cathy Prescott, from Avlar Bioventures. There were clearly centers of excellence, particularly for somatic cell nuclear replacement."
Overall, the group found that the governments in the three countries were making large amounts of money available for the research and establishing solid infrastructure, Prescott told The Scientist. "And the scientists we spoke to have thought long and hard about what products are likely to come to the clinic first and the reasons why," she said.
The United Kingdom considers itself a leader in the stem cell research field, but some of the country's scientists fear that lead could be squandered due to inadequate funding. In recent days, a group of financial figures and researchers announced plans to establish a £100 million (USD $187.3 million) public–private foundation with the aim of shoring up funding in the area.
The DTI report has highlighted those concerns, said Colin Blakemore, head of the Medical Research Council. "We have to think very deeply about how to sustain the investment we've already made," he told The Scientist.
"We really did do a lot of the spade work in terms of research, ethics, governance frameworks, stem cell banking and so on," Blakemore said. "Unless we now continue to increase investment in stem cell research, we'll lose the position we've got very rapidly."
In China, the delegates visited Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. "In each city, we saw evidence of substantial investment in stem cell research, primarily from central and regional government," they report. "The pattern that emerged was of excellent researchers… trained overseas and returning to establish new laboratories and institutes."
Those labs were often better equipped than their UK counterparts, and with an abundance of motivated junior staff, the report says. "Where they are possibly lacking at present is in the cadre of trained postdoctoral scientists that are the core of the scientific effort in the West, but this will surely change."
In Singapore, where the government has made great efforts to woo leading international bioscience researchers, the UK delegation was slightly less impressed. Research in the country's flagship Biopolis hub is mostly led by ex-pat Western scientists, they note. "It remains to be seen whether this approach will pay dividends for Singapore itself," they write.
The researchers also said they saw less evidence in Singapore of "the drive to the clinic that so characterizes China."
The UK group only spent a day in South Korea, and visited just two centers—Woo Suk Hwang's lab at the National University and the Stem Cell Research Centre, directed by Shin Yong Moon. Nevertheless, what they saw was striking.
"South Korean stem cell research is very impressive," they report. "The Stem Cell Research Centre represents probably the most comprehensive stem cell network in Asia. It has a comprehensive infrastructure supported by an imaginative 10-year funding cycle, which assures stability and far-sightedness while tracking funding to clear milestones and deliverables."
Each of the three countries is likely to be a force in the stem cell field in the immediate future, the report concludes. "The challenge to Western pre-eminence in stem cell research from China, Singapore, and South Korea is real."
"I came back blown away by the whole thing," Stephen Minger, from King's College London, told The Scientist last year. "It was mind boggling to everybody."
References
| 1. | | [http://www.globalwatchonline.com/pfi/display_embassy.aspx?From=Mission%20Reports&url=http://www.oti.globalwatchonline.com/online_pdfs/36206S.pdf]
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| | | Global Watch, Stem Cell Mission to China, Singapore and South Korea: Executive Summary
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| 2. | | [http://www.avlar.com]
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| | | Avlar Bioventures
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| 3. | | [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/01/23/cnstem23.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/01/23/ixfrontcity.html]
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| | | S. Pfeifer, "Blair backs City's £100 million fund for stem-cell research," Daily Telegraph, January 23, 2005.
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| 4. | | [http://www.the-scientist.com/2004/11/22/10/1]
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| | | S. Pincock, "Notebook: Stem cells in Asia," The Scientist, 18:10, November 22, 2004.
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