PRESS RELEASES

ISSUED BY BBSRC ON BEHALF OF THE UK NATIONAL STEM CELL NETWORK

14 December 2006

UK National Stem Cell Network names first Steering Committee

The UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN) has appointed the members of
its first Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will direct the early
operation of the Network, which has been set up following the recommendations
of the 2005 Pattison Report of the UK Stem Cell Initiative.

The Network has appointed Lord Naren Patel of Dunkeld as the first chair of its
Steering Committee, which will include seven other members:

• Professor Sir Martin Evans FRS, University of Cardiff
• Professor Jon Frampton, University of Birmingham
• Dr Chris Mason FRCS, University College London
• Professor Roger Pedersen, University of Cambridge
• Professor Dame Julia Polak FRS, Imperial College London
• Professor Brian Salter, University of East Anglia
• Professor Michael Whitaker FIBiol FMedSci, University of Newcastle

Full biographies are available below.

The Steering Committee will meet quarterly for the first two years of the
UKNSCN.

Lord Patel said: “When it launches next year the UK National Stem Cell Network
will coordinate the UK scientific effort in stem cell science. I am pleased to
welcome the experienced and respected scientists who have been appointed to
the Steering Committee by their peers in the UK stem cell community. Their
expertise and skills will be crucial to the success of the network in its early
years.”

The UKNSCN will be formally launched in early 2007 and will then aim to coordinate
existing stem cell research activities in the UK. Through sharing of
expertise and technology it will become the focal point for communication about
stem cell research to the public and industry. The Network will also be the
national voice of stem cell science to policy makers as well as acting as the
main initial point of contact for overseas researchers and promoting the uptake
and use of stem cells by scientific, business and medical communities.

ENDS

Contact

Matt Goode
Tel: 01793 413299, e-mail: ukpo@uknscn.org

Ben Sykes, UKNSCN Executive Director
Tel: 01793 414676, e-mail: uksa@uknscn.org

Notes to Editors

The UKNSCN Steering Committee has been appointed on the basis of nominations from
members of the UK research community, together with important considerations of
specific scientific expertise in certain types of stem cell, and UK geographic
representation. The Chair has been appointed for the first two years, whilst members
have been appointed for one year only with the possibility of extension to two years. In
order to maintain effective coordination of the UK research effort in stem cells and to
ensure the Steering Committee is representative of the UK stem cell community the
membership of the Steering Committee may be rotated. Members of the Committee
(including the Chair) do not receive honoraria.

The UKNSCN is the UK stem cell research community’s response to recommendation
10 of the 2005 Pattison Report on the UK Stem Cell Initiative. Pattison called for the
establishment of a UK Stem Cell Cooperative to “maximise the cross-fertilisation
between those involved in the sub-disciplines of UK stem cell research”. Following an
online consultation and a town meeting in summer 2006 the community agreed the
establishment of the UKNSCN for an initial period of two years and agreed its initial
activities.

About the UK National Stem Cell Network

The UK National Stem Cell Network is designed to act as a network of the
existing regional stem cell networks in the UK, to bring coordination and
coherence to a range of national and regional activities in the field of stem cell
research.

The UKNSCN secretariat is currently hosted by the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) on behalf of the UK’s public funders of
stem cell research. The secretariat receives financial support from four of the UK
Research Councils:

• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
• Economic and Social Research Council
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
• Medical Research Council

The Network represents all UK Government supporters of stem cell research
which includes the sponsors and the Council for the Central Laboratory of the
Research Councils, the Department of Health, the Department of Trade and
Industry and the Office of Science and Innovation.

Steering Committee Member Biographies

Lord (Naren) Patel of Dunkeld
Lord Naren Patel is Professor and Consultant at the University of Dundee, Ninewells
Hospital, Dundee. Born in Tanzania he graduated in medicine at the University of St.
Andrews, Scotland, in 1964. He is currently Chairman of the United Kingdom Stem Cell
Oversight Committee and Chairman of the National Patient Safety Agency of the United
Kingdom and Chancellor of the University of Dundee. Previously he has held the
position of Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges of Scotland and the
United Kingdom; member of the Council of the General Medical Council and Academy
of Medical Sciences and was Chairman of the Genetic Advisory Committee of the
Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom. He was awarded a Knighthood in the
Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 1997 and was made a life Peer with the title of Baron
Patel of Dunkeld in Perth and Kinross in the Queen’s New Years Honours List in 1999.
He has been a member of the Scientific and Technology Committee of the House of
Lords since 1999 and is a patron of several charities and a Board Member of several
others.

Professor Sir Martin Evans FRS
Sir Martin Evans is Professor of Mammalian Genetics of Cardiff University, Fellow of the
Royal Society and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. After graduating from
Cambridge in 1963 he decided on a career studying the genetic control of vertebrate
development and undertook research for his PhD at University College London in the
department of Anatomy and Embryology. He was the first to maintain mouse
teratocarcinoma stem cells in tissue culture under conditions where their ability to
differentiate was retained indefinitely. In 1981 after his return to Cambridge that
together with Matt Kaufman he was able to isolate similar cells from normal mouse
embryos. These cells which became known as “Embryonic Stem Cells” (ES cells) were
able to be used to fully regenerate fertile breeding mice from the tissue culture cells
and that these could therefore carry mutations introduced and selected or screened for
in culture. This is now the basis for experimental mammalian genetics - of mouse
knockout and targetted genetic manipulation. Sir Martin received the Lasker award in
2001 and was knighted in 2004 for services to Medical Science.

Professor Jon Frampton
For almost two decades Professor Frampton has been investigating the molecular
mechanisms controlling blood stem cells in the bone marrow. After obtaining a
doctorate in Cambridge he carried out research in Glasgow, Heidelberg and Oxford
before his appointment in 2004 as Professor of Stem Cell Biology at the University of
Birmingham.

Dr Chris Mason FRCS
Originally trained as a surgeon, Dr Mason now heads up the Stem Cell and
Regenerative Medicine Bioprocessing Unit in the Advanced Centre for Biochemical
Engineering, UCL. Chris is also involved in a number of committees, networks, scientific
advisory boards, editorial boards, working groups and initiatives related to the
academic, clinical and commercial advancement of regenerative medicine.

Professor Roger Pedersen
Professor Pedersen received degrees in biology from Stanford (A.B, 1965) and Yale
(PhD, 1970) and did postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins. In 1971, he joined the
University of California, San Francisco, where he studied developmental potency and
fate in mammalian embryos. In 2001 he moved to the University of Cambridge, where
he continues his research on human embryonic stem cells as Professor of Regenerative
Medicine.

Professor Dame Julia Polak FRS
Professor Polak graduated in Buenos Aires, Argentina and obtained her postgraduate
training in the UK. She became Professor and the Director of Tissue Engineering and
Regenerative Medicine Centre, Imperial College in 1997. She is a member of the Stem
Cell Advisory Board Panel of the joint MRC/UKSCF, Panel of the new EPSRC Peer
Review College (2006 – 2009), Panel of the MRC College of Experts (2006 – 2010) and
Steering Group of the UK Stem Cell Immunology Programme (March 2006). She is a
council member of the Tissue Engineering Society International and the Academy of
Medical Sciences (2002 – 2005) and was also European Editor of Tissue Engineering
(up until 2004). She is the author of more than 1000 original papers, 127 review articles
and Editor/Author of 25 books and is one of the most Highly Cited Researchers inher
field. She is a co-founder and Director of a spin out company, Novathera, dealing with
Regenerative Medicine Products. She has received a number of honours and won a
number of prizes. She was made Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in
2003.

Professor Brian Salter
Professor Salter is Professor of Biopolitics and Director of the Global Biopolitics
Research Group in the Institute of Health at the University of East Anglia. A political
scientist specialising in the analysis of public policy, his work focuses on the global
politics and governance of new health technologies.

Professor Michael Whitaker FIBiol FMedSci
Professor Whitaker has a background and international reputation in physiology,
biochemistry, cell and developmental biology and reproduction. He has long-standing
links with the Wellcome Trust and has served on the boards of a number of companies
and learned societies in the life science sector. He has recently established the
Northeast England Institute Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) as a joint venture between
Durham and Newcastle Universities.