Geoff Lomax is CIRM’s Senior Officer for Medical and Ethical Standards. He has been working in the implementation of CIRM’s iPSC Banking Program.

The ability to create high-quality stem cell lines depends, in part, on the generosity of donors. For example, CIRM is sponsoring an induced pluripotent stem cell bank (iPSC bank) that will eventually contain 9,000 stem cell lines. Each of these lines will be generated from tissue donated by 3,000 people suffering from known diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, hepatitis, blindness, heart disease—and many more. You can learn more about this important initiative here.

In other countries there are similar initiatives like the one sponsored by CIRM.

We also believe that our donors should have accurate information about how their donated materials will be used, so CIRM has developed variety of tools designed to educate donors. For example, each donor must go through a process called “informed consent” where they are told the details of how iPSC’s are derived and preserved in a bank. We discuss this effort here. In the context of the CIRM bank, new donors are being recruited under ethically and scientifically optimal conditions—where they can be fully informed as to how their cells will be used and how their contribution will spur stem cell research.

There are, however, existing libraries of cell and tissues that have inherent scientific value. For example, they may represent a rare or “orphan” disease. Or, they may be essential for tracking the progress of a patient’s disease over time. These collections have also been developed with the consent of the donor or patient, but, at the time of collection, iPSCs may not have even existed. One question that frequently arises is: can these cells be used for iPSC derivation, research and banking? It is not an abstract concern; CIRM and others often get questions about the adequacy of donor consent for precisely this purpose.

In 2013, CIRM, the NIH and the International Stem Cell Forum (ISCF)/McGill University formed the DISCUSS Project (Deriving Induced Stem Cells Using Stored Specimens) to engage the boarder research community on this issue. Rosario Isasi, a project collaborator from ISCF/McGill University, said that her research tells us that investigators around the world are asking the same questions about use of existing cell lines. To help inform researchers, we started by publishing a report on this very subject. The report included nine points to consider when answering the question of whether existing cell libraries can be used for iPSC research.

We followed this initial effort with a series of meetings and workshops to get reactions to our proposed points to consider. The process culminated with a workshop in March where researchers from around world provided recommendations to the DISCUSS team. Sara Hull, a project collaborator from the NIH, noted that the international perspectives were key to producing a greatly improved product. A major workshop theme was the importance of having an effective management system in place, making sure that the cells are used in a way that is consistent with the donor consent. Participants described a number of specific mechanisms that should be used by the research community to ensure cells are used appropriately. Participants emphasized that having effective systems in place to manage cells and iPSC lines in accordance with donors wishes serves to build trust.

Our workshop report elaborates on specific steps researchers and stem cell banks should take to ensure cell lines are used appropriately. The report also includes a revised set of points to consider based on comments received from meetings and workshops.

The DISCUSS Team looks forward to working with the research community to develop consensus for the responsible use of donated materials in stem cell research.

Geoff Lomax