THE government must double its current investment in stem cell research or risk being left behind by America, a prominent Scottish academic has warned.
Lord Naren Patel of Dunkeld, the chancellor of Dundee University, said the UK is between £20m and £30m short of the level of funding it needs to sustain itself as the world leader in stem cell research.
Lord Patel was speaking at the launch of a network to co-ordinate and promote the UK's stem cell science effort.
The UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN) aims to enhance basic research at a network of universities throughout Scotland and the UK, and help speed its translation into clinical applications.
Lord Patel, a world renowned obstetrician, is the first chairman of the UKNSCN steering committee.
At the launch yesterday, he said the government was failing to meet the funding targets outlined to them in the Pattison report in 2005, while both the US and Japan have been increasing their budgets.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article