UK sets up new 'spare parts' laboratory
While MEPs voiced concerns about the ethics of medical research into cloning human cells, the British Government is planning to set up a major new laboratory to develop the technology. At a science festival in London, a leading researcher revealed that the UK Government has approved funding to establish a National tissue engineering centre to be based jointly at the universities of Manchester and Liverpool. The £10 million laboratory will become a world centre into methods of growing human cells for use in treating degenerative diseases. Professor David Williams, professor of clinical engineering at Liverpool, said that recent developments in collecting and growing stem cells - cells with the capacity to develop into a range of tissue cell types - would create new opportunities for rebuilding damaged organs. Eventually it should be possible to treat patients with tissue grown from their own stem cells but in the meantime the research will focus on stem cells collected from human embryos. He said, "We are talking about replacing skin, cartilage, parts of the vascular (blood circulation) system, right up to whole organs, possibly including the heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys." He warned that it could be many years before scientists develop techniques for growing whole organs but simple two-dimensional structures like skin will be easier to achieve.