Key facts

    • North East England's £10m Life Knowledge Park at the International Centre for Life, is one of only six UK genetic research centres aimed at fundamental improvements in human health.
    • Newcastle Human Embryonic Stem Cell Group is one of only a few research units to be awarded a Human Fetilisation Authority licence to undertake somatic cell nuclear transfer.
    • The University of Newcastle's Institute of Human Genetics is one of Europe's largest human genetics research centres, with world-leading research into embryonic, germline and adult stem cells.
    • Through the activities of the North East Stem Cell Insititute (NESCI), the region takes a joined-up approach to stem cell R&D and commercialisation by collaborating with the Universities of Newcastle and Durham, the National Health Service (NHS) and regional industry.
    • In 2005, scientists at the Centre for Life in Newcastle were the first group in the world to successfully clone a human embryo
    • Newcastle University's Institute of Human Genetics has held the highest possible grading (5*) in the national Research Assessment Exercise since 2001
    • The Institute of Human Genetics at the Centre for Life in Newcastle is leading cutting-edge work into the diagnosis and follow-up treatment of bowel cancer
    • More than 3,000 babies have been born with help from the NHS's Newcastle Fertility Centre at the Centre for Life
    • The Centre for Life in Newcastle has been awarded a £734K grant from Cancer Research UK and the Royal College of Surgeons to investigate the role of stem cells in the human prostate.