Professor Glyn Stacey

Glyn Stacey’s background is in microbiology and cancer research and over the last 25 years he has focused on the development of stem cell-based medicines.

At the Centre for Microbiology and Research (Porton Down, UK) from 1988-1998, he established the Cell Development Group developing cell culture scale up systems and cell-based assays. In 1998 he moved to the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC-MHRA, UK) where he set up a new cell biology division working on safety of cell substrates used for vaccine manufacture and establishment of WHO international genetic reference materials. In 2002, he won an MRC national grant award to initiate the UK Stem Cell Bank to provide a source of ethically suitable and quality controlled human embryonic stem cell lines for research and clinical use. In 2007 he initiated the International Stem Cell Banking Initiative (www.iscbi.org) which brings together pluripotent stem cell resource centres from around the world to agree and publish consensus on best practice. Throughout these activities Glyn has consistently maintained a strong involvement in the development of cryopreservation technology, organising workshops and scientific cryobiology conferences and publishing per reviewed papers and expert opinion pieces on preservation issues for cell-based medicines.

He has also been an active committee member of the Society for Low Temperature Biology since 1988 and was its Chairperson 2017-2020. He has also served on numerous scientific advisory boards, national health advisory committees and was a member of the Horizon Scanning and Research Programme boards of the UK regulatory body MHRA. Glyn has also been involved in writing best practice documents for cell culture applications (Good Cell and tissue Culture Practice, 2022), in vitro laboratory methods (OECD, 2018), cell-based manufacture of biotherapeutics and vaccines (WHO, 2010) and regenerative medicines (UK Department of Health, 2014). He has setup several cleanroom facilities under a Human Tissue Authority license, also designed to meet the requirements of Good Manufacturing Practice. Glyn currently provides support to a number of government organisations and foundations worldwide.

He is the International Director for the Chinese National Stem Cell Resource Center in Beijing, which is developing human pluripotent stem cell lines for clinical trials and is operating 10 clinical studies registered on clinicaltrials.gov. As well as being a visiting Professor at the University of Suffolk and past Professor at the University of Bedfordshire, Glyn is also an honorary lecturer at the UCL Department of Bioengineering and an active member of the UCL Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing Hub.