The China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) awarded the country's first biobanking accreditation certificate to China National Stem Cell Resource Center (NSCRC) at the second National Stem Cell Resource Center Innovation Alliance & Standards Issuing Conference held in Beijing on March 20.

Also at the conference, the Standardization Committee of the Chinese Society for Cell Biology (CSCB) released six independently-set standards covering stem cells.

The NSCRC is the first biobanking approved by ISO 20387 in China and the first recognized stem cell resource bank internationally, demonstrating that China leads the world in developing the biobank accreditation system.

This accreditation will also help better regulate and standardize the establishment of biobanks in China, ensure the quality of biological samples, promote international exchanges, cooperation and sharing, and lay a foundation for the conservation and utilization of precious genetic resources.

The standards issued this time cover six types of cells, namely human mesenchymal stem cells, human retinal pigment epithelial cells, human induced pluripotent stem cells, human cardiac myocytes, human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and primary human hepatocytes.

These standards provide systematic regulations on relevant cell biological characteristics, key quality attributes, production techniques, production processes and quality control, testing methods and rules, packaging and labeling, storage and transportation, etc., all strongly facilitating the advancement of the stem cell industry.

Wen Ya, director of the Bureau of Science & Technology for Development, China Academy of Sciences (CAS), said the accreditation of the National Stem Cell Resource Center and the release of standards would promote the stem cells' development pattern of new industries, new forms and models of business, an important manifestation of the national strategic scientific and technological strength.

Fu Xiaofeng, a second-level inspector of the Department of Basic Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology, expressed high appreciation and recognition for the Alliance for taking the lead in planning the standard system construction and complementing each other with respective strengths to accelerate the clinical application of stem cells.