Number of Number of institutions hESC involved in lines hESC reported derivation Number of hESC lines published in peer-reviewed papers 19 29 1 4 236 7 31 10 20 15 6 14 3 37 4 16 15 18 90 1 1 18 42 434 1,071 3 3 1 2 13 1 4 2 4 5 1 3 1 5 1 2 2 3 3 1 1 1 8 17 87 14 23 0 2 228 4 14 5 0 5 6 12 3 35 4 5 15 13 45 1 1 7 28 224 694 Table 1. Overview of hESC lines publicly reported up to November 2009 Table 2. Overview of hESC lines with genetic disorders linked to inheritable human diseases as determined by November 2009 241 Number of hESC lines 1 2 7 2 15 6 1 9 3 1 1 9 1 11 4 2 4 1 4 4 2 7 2 1 1 1 3 3 2 1 1 2 3 116 Lo¨ ser, Schirm, Guhr et al. Country Australia Belgium Brazil Canada China (including Taiwan) Czech Republic Denmark Finland France India Iran Israel Japan Korea Netherlands Russia Singapore Spain Sweden Switzerland Thailand Turkey UK USA Total Given are the numbers of hESC lines derived in a speciﬁc country, the number of institutions that reported successful derivation of hESC lines, and the number of hESC lines reported in peer-reviewed English-language journals. Note that hESC lines derived at the Reproductive Genetics Institute (Chicago, IL), which are partially distributed by Stemride International Limited, were assigned to the United States. hESC lines from ES Cell International were assigned to Singapore. Stem cell lines derived from parthenogenetic embryos were not included. A detailed list of the hESC lines is provided in the supporting information material. Methods used to determine impact factors, citation frequencies, international collaboration, and NIH funding of hESC work as well as the sources from which information on hESC lines was received are provided as supporting information. RESULTS Number of hESC Lines We ﬁrst determined the number of hESC lines reported up to November 24, 2009, in the scientiﬁc literature as well as in stem cell registries, on web pages or in press releases. According to our data, publicly available information exists on at least 1,071 original hESC lines that were derived at 87 institutions in 24 countries (Table 1). For 694 of these cell lines (64.8%), either derivation has been described in English-language peer-reviewed journals or these cell lines have been used in experimental work published in such journals. For 590 cell lines, at least some characterization data were reported in published articles. Thus, the number of hESC lines reported in the scientiﬁc literature has mark- www.StemCells.com Genetic disorder Adrenoleukodystrophy a-Thalassaemia b-Thalassaemia Charcot-Marie tooth disease 1A (CMT1A) Cystic ﬁbrosis (CF) Dystrophya myotonica type 1 (DM1) Fabry syndrome Facioscapulohumeral (FSH) muscular dystrophy Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) Familial breast cancer Fanconi anaemia Fragile X syndrome (FX) Hemophilia A Huntington’s disease (HD) Marfan syndrome (MFS) Multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 1 Multiple endocrine neoplasia, type 2 Muscular dystrophy, type Becker Muscular dystrophy, type Duchenne Muscular dystrophy, type Emery Dreifuss Myotubular myopathy (MTM), cross-linked Neuroﬁbromatosis type 1 Ocular albinism Osteogenesis imperfecta type 1 Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMLD) Popliteal Pterygium syndrome (PPS) Sandhoff disease Sickle cell anaemia Spinal muscular atrophy type 1 (SMA1) Spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) Spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) Torsion dystonia (DYT1) Tuberous sclerosis Total Note that one hESC line harbours two genetic alterations linked to inheritable diseases. edly increased since 2005, when only 171 of 414 known hESC lines were reported in the scientiﬁc literature (2). hESC lines not published in scientiﬁc journals to date com- prise, for example, cell lines derived recently (e.g., 20 hESC lines from France and 17 lines from Denmark listed in hESCreg, the hESC registry of the European Union, as well as 68 lines in the United States, announced recently by the NIH) and many cell lines derived at the Reproduc- tive Genetics Institute in Chicago and distributed by Stemr- ide International Limited. While characterization data for the former will hopefully be published in the near term, only little information is publicly available for many of the hESC lines from the Reproductive Genetics Institute. More- over, a large fraction of the hESC lines derived before Au- gust 2001 and originally registered at the NIH has not been described in the literature and is not publicly avail- able for research so far. When analyzing characteristics and speciﬁcities in deri- vation modalities of hESC lines, two aspects should be noted. First, among hESC lines publicly reported, at least 116 (10.8%) harbor genetic modiﬁcations linked to 33 inher- itable human diseases (Table 2). These cell lines were usu- ally derived from embryos examined by preimplantation genetic diagnosis. By the end of 2005, only 27 of the 414