This month’s Nature Reports Stem Cells newsletter explores banks and registries. Lawyers, ethicists and scientists meet in California to figure out what the field needs, and so does a global group of stem cell funders. A registry of human embryonic stem cells is colaunched by a country that has criminalized most research on these cells. Private stem cell banking firms criticize their competitors’ approaches while claiming all stem cell triumphs.

Featured stories include:

Thickets and gaps blocking stem cell science

Cross-institutional collaborations could advance stem cell science

The European Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry — a personal view from Germany

Joeri Borstlap, technical coordinator of the registry, explains why a country that has criminalized work on some embryonic stem cell lines is participating in this effort

Related story: Q&A with Anna Veiga, the registry’s scientific coordinator

Stem cell banking: lifeline or subprime?

Bryn Nelson reports that cell banks are charging high prices to store stem cells for therapeutic applications that may never be realized

Q&A: Head of the UK’s Medical Research Council ponders global stem cell efforts

At a meeting of the International Stem Cell Forum, Sir Leszek Borysiewicz describes the need for multiple registries and banks

Umbilical cord companies in Asia

Announcements of deals to bank and use umbilical cord blood in India, Vietnam and South Korea point to an industry that is both promising and prone to overpromising

For more stories, as well as research highlights, news, journal club and “”https://www.nature.com/stemcells/editor.html">featured editor“, visit ”https://www.nature.com/stemcells/index.html">Nature Reports Stem Cells — where you can also sign up for the monthly newsletter (see button at right-hand side of the page) and subscribe to the associated blog, The Niche.