Introduction: Governance of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in Australia has largely been driven by the recommendations from the 2005 Lockhart review. Although one of its recommendations was the establishment of embryonic stem cell (hESC) banks, no such resource has been implemented. Many of the legislative requirements governing hESC do not apply to newer technologies such as induced pluripotent stem cells. Nevertheless, some oversight of which hPSC lines have been generated in Australia would be valuable. While stem cell banks do exist internationally, a more common practise is the development of a stem cell registry. These are online catalogues of lines that promote research visibility and cell line provenance. Two examples of international registries are hPSCreg (https://hpscreg.eu/) and SKIP (https://skip.stemcellinformatics.org/en/).
Approach: To explore why Australia has not have a stem cell registry, we conducted a legislative review around the Lockhart recommendation in parallel with relevant chronology in Europe, where hPSCreg has been established. We also reviewed the registration status of Australian hPSCs in the international domain.
Results: Although Australia proposed a stem cell bank shortly after Europe, due to the lack of funding and legislative support, no such facility has been implemented. The number of Australian hPSC lines registered internationally is comparatively low compared to what exists, and many Australian lines are only partially registered.
Conclusion: The lack of a national stem cell registry and the low international registration statues has resulted in a lack of systematic documentation of Australian hPSCs.