European Union 6th Framework Programmes and UK DTI Technology Programme

EuroStemCell
SCS’ research activities focus on the development of new technology for specification and purification of lineage restricted progenitor cells and improvements to existing methodology for the feeder-free and serum-free propagation of stem cells. A project award from the second call of FP6, EuroStemCell is a consortium of 27 different stem cell research groups from 14 organizations in 7 European countries. The FP6 award of 11.9M€ over a 4 year period is to support fundamental, systematic research on a range of stem cell types with a goal of building the foundations for regenerative medicine.
http://www.eurostemcell.org/

FunGenES
SCS' research activities focus on the development of technology for the expression of candidate cDNAs in mouse ES cells & the generation of pure populations of ES-derived dopaminergic neurons. A project award from the second call of FP6, FunGenES is a consortium of 17 different organizations in 6 European countries. The FP6 award of 8.9M€ over a 3 year period is to support a fundamental, functional genomics approach to a study on mouse embryonic stem cells.
http://www.fungenes.org/

ESTOOLS
SCS’ research activities focus on improving to standardise methodology for the propagation of human ES cells & the specification of lineage primed ES-derived neural cells. A project award from the third call of FP6, ESTOOLS is a consortium of 18 different organizations in 10 European countries. The FP6 award of 11.9M€ over a 4 year period is to support a fundamental, functional genomics approach to a study on human embryonic stem cells.
http://www.estools.eu/

NEUROscreen
A successful project application from the fourth & final call of FP6, NEUROscreen focuses on the discovery of potential new regenerative medicines via chemical genetic screens using neural stem & progenitor cell lines. SCS is leading this FP6 project as coordinator of the NEUROscreen consortium. Neuroscreen involves designing unique bioassays based on SCS' neural stem cell technology, which will then be used to discover new candidate medicines for the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and epilepsy. Neural stem cells can differentiate into neurons and glia, therefore offer potential in treating CNS disorders. SCS' component of the project will be performed at its automated stem cell production facility in Cambridge (UK) by the SC Services team of assay design specialists.

EU-TRACC
A successful project application from the fourth & final call of FP6, EU-TRACC will focus on the transcriptome underlying cellular commitment. SCS will provide scale up technology for mouse ES cell neural commitment to the consortium which is currently in contract negotiations with the EU.

UK DTI-Technology Programme

StemHTS is a project, with an award of £1.2M from the UK Department of Trade & Industry, for the development of technology to enable the production and formatting of high-throughput embryonic stem cell based platforms of utility in the drug discovery industry. SCS coordinates & leads the consortium & technology development focuses on the provision of bioprocesses that control the behavior & performance of stem cells in micro-array formats. It is anticipated that this project will generate underpinning technology for early product development opportunities for SC Services