The Swedish Research Council Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson Secretary General, Medicine

1. The Swedish Research CouncilHarriet Wallberg-Henriksson Secretary General, Medicine

2. VETENSKAPSRÅDET THE SWEDISH RESEARCH COUNCIL Sweden: Stem Cell Research Outline • Legislation and Ethical Guidelines • A Survey of Swedish Stem Cell Research 2002

3. Current Swedish legislation and EU convention • The law (1991:115) on proceedings for research and treatment with fertilized human eggs • contraceptives • development of the embryo • causes of malformations • involuntary childlessness • The biobank law (2002:297) • banking of biological material • collaboration and sharing • Council of Europe: Convention on human rights and biomedicine 1997 • signed but not ratified by Sweden

4. Ethical Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research Adopted December 3, 2001, by the Swedish Research Council • Stem cells from embryos from IVF • Surplus embryos from IVF is ethically acceptable to donated to research; informed consent from donors is necessary • Creation of embryos for research purposes only, is ethically unacceptable at this time

5. Ethical Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research Adopted December 3, 2001, by the Swedish Research Council • Somatic cell nuclear transfer (therapeutic cloning) • might be ethically acceptable, but can not be performed at this time due to the legal situation

6. Legislation in Sweden: Regulating human embryonic stem cell research • informed consent needed by the donors of egg and sperm • the embryo must be destroyed within 14 days • an embryo can not be frozen for more than 5 years • a fertilized egg that has been used for research can not be inserted into a woman’s body • reproductive cloning not possible

7. A Survey – March 2002Scientists involved in Stem cell research University Research Groups Researchers Umeå University 1 11 Uppsala University 3 14 Univ. of Agriculture 1 2 Karolinska Institutet 10 102 Stockholm University 4 20 Linköping University 2 6 Göteborg University 6 56 Chalmers Univ. of Techn. 2 12 Lunds University 4 65 Total 33 288

8. A Survey – March 2002Areas of stem cell research • Neurobiology • Majority of scientists • Haematopoietic research • Longest tradition • Embryonic stem cell research • 1/3 of the world´s human embryonic stem cell lines in Aug. 2001

9. A Survey on Stem Cell Research – Conclusions • Relatively new area which was hard to define • Few, but successful groups • Publications were cited more than avarage • Economical support needed • Increased interactions with other fields would be benificial

10. Human Embryonic Stem cell Research in Sweden • Two centers: • Karolinska Institutet, • Stockholm • Lars Ährlund-Richter • Outi Hovatta • Gothenburgs University, • Gothenburg • Henrik Semb • Peter Eriksson • Anders Lindahl • Lars Hamberger

11. Karolinska Institutet • 2001 • 6 genotypes – early cultures, frozen • thawing started – possible to recover? • 2002 • 1 genotype - long term culture > 9 months • 3 genotypes - early cultures under expansion and analysis • 2 genotypes - early cultures frozen

12. Gothenburg University Four human embryonic stem cell lines fully characterized Additional 8 lines under charaterization

13. Funding programme of 75 milj. SEK 2003-2007 • Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation • 50 milj. SEK • Swedish Diabetes Association • 5 milj. SEK • Swedish Research Council • 20 milj. SEK • Two networks and 9 individual projects