鈥淭HERE is no excuse for the ongoing use of contaminated cell lines.鈥� This was the message of a recent editorial in 快猫短视频, accompanying a news item that reported how impostor cells continue to wreck research into vaccines, cancer and much more (20 September, p 5 and p 8). I showed the comment and report to the UK鈥檚 science minister, Lord Sainsbury, and asked for his views.
Sainsbury replied that the Medical Research Council has told him it knows of a few cases where researchers have used incorrectly identified cell lines. However, it maintains the problem is not as widespread as 快猫短视频鈥檚 report suggests. The MRC expects all scientists who receive its grants or training awards to adopt the highest research standards. This includes allowing the quality and integrity of data to be easily verified so that journal editors and fellow researchers can feel confident cell lines are of the appropriate purity and identity. The MRC expects a senior member of the research group to take responsibility for the supervision and checking of issues such as this.
Although it is not a requirement, said Sainsbury, the MRC has carried out genetic fingerprinting of lines where appropriate. He assures me the rules on verification will be most stringent for the cell lines to be held by the new MRC stem cell bank.
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Good news, but I fear this could be the proverbial problem of one rotten apple in the basket infecting the rest. UNTIL I read Stephen Leahy鈥檚 report, 鈥淭rawlers threaten ocean鈥檚 biodiversity鈥� (快猫短视频, 30 August, p 6), I am ashamed to say I had no notion that hundreds of deep-sea species are disappearing before they can even be identified or studied. Trawlers targeting undersea volcanic mountains, called seamounts, are pushing organisms to extinction. I asked the fishing minister, Ben Bradshaw, what the UK is doing to right this wrong.
Bradshaw said the UK is playing its part via the 1992 Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Northeast Atlantic (OSPAR). Signatories agree to: 鈥渋ndividually and jointly, take the necessary measures to protect the maritime area against the adverse effects of human activities鈥hen practicable, restore marine areas which have been adversely affected鈥nd to develop strategies, plans or programmes for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.鈥�
To achieve this, signatories have developed criteria to identify species and habitats in need of protection in the OSPAR maritime area. These have been used to draw up an initial list of threatened and/or declining species and habitats. On the list are 27 species and 10 habitats, including seamounts, said the minister.
The topic was also raised at the ministerial meeting of the OSPAR Commission in Bremen in June, when ministers endorsed the list of species and habitats, including seamounts (快猫短视频, 21 June, p 5).
