House of Lords launches inquiry into regenerative medicine

The inquiry, by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee chaired by Lord Krebs, is looking at whether the UK is in a position to translate knowledge from world-leading research into treatments and to benefit from commercial opportunities. Public hearings will be held in the autumn, with the committee reporting in 2013.

The term regenerative medicine is used to refer to methods to replace or regenerate human cells, tissues or organs in order to restore or establish normal function. This includes cell therapies, tissue engineering, gene therapy and biomedical engineering, as well as more traditional pharmaceuticals, biologics and devices.

The call for evidence uses as an example the transplantation of a new trachea grown using the patient's own stem cells.

Submissions are invited on:

• How the UK ranks internationally in regenerative medicine
• Whether science is being translated into applications in the UK
• What the barriers are to translation
• Whether there are barriers to commercialisation

The call for evidence (which contains further details on how to submit written evidence) is is available on the Committee's website.