Embryonic stem cell lines were first successfully established late in 1998 by a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Stem cells are the parent cells of all cells in the body.
The institute's scientific director will be James Thomson, the UW-Madison developmental biologist in whose laboratory human embryonic stem cells were first isolated. Thomson will remain on the Wisconsin faculty, however. So far, more than 100 requests for the cells have been received by Thomson's lab and at least a dozen companies have approached WARF about stem cell technology. Those guidelines, after nearly a year of formulation and deliberation, were made public by NIH late last year and, when implemented, are expected to greatly accelerate demand for the cells as they would permit the use of federal money for the first time to conduct human stem cell-related research. In addition to the promise of widespread clinical application, the cells hold the potential for developing powerful new drug discovery schemes.