Royan Institute
Encyclopedia
Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, Stem Cell Biology and Technology is a leading Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian biomedical research center involved in stem cell technology and regenerative medicine.

The institute was established in 1991. Its first director was Professor Saeid Kazemi Ashtiani. Since its establishment, the institute has had close collaborations with other leading Iranian research centers as Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics is a research institute in Iran founded in 1976 to conduct research in biological sciences and related fields. It is affiliated with the University of Tehran and is located in its main campus....

 (IBB), NRCGEB
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology - was promoted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization as a centre of excellence for research and training in genetic engineering and biotechnology for the benefit of developing countries. The Centre, currently...

, Bone Marrow Transplantation Center at Shariati hospital in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

.

The Department of Stem Cells was established in 2002 to establish embryonic stem cell
Embryonic stem cell
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells...

 lines and to differentiate them to some different kinds of cells including: Cardiomyocytes, Beta Cells, and Neural Cells.

Royan is a leading stem cell research center in Asia and middle east. Iran has some of the most liberal laws on stem cell research. Royan scientists have claimed to have successfully cloned a sheep and that the sheep is still alive. Foreign observers have been invited to verify the claim.

Scientists working at the Royan Institute have increased their output of publications (national and international) from two (in 1996) to 67 (in 2005). However the number of international publications by Royan scientists is still too low compared to world-class institutions. For instance the number of international papers published till 2007 in the area of stem cell, is only 27 including the papers published in Yakhteh Journal, the institute's own journal. The impact factor
Impact factor
The impact factor, often abbreviated IF, is a measure reflecting the average number of citations to articles published in science and social science journals. It is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed...

 of Yakhteh Journal has been estimated to be 0.208. Cell
Cell (journal)
Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers across a broad range of disciplines within the life sciences. Areas covered include molecular biology, cell biology, systems biology, stem cells, developmental biology, genetics and genomics, proteomics, cancer research,...

 published by Elsevier has an impact factor of 29.431. Yakhteh is a Persian word and means "cell".

United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 is by far the world’s leader in the total number of stem cell articles published, alone accounting for 42% of all stem cell articles published worldwide between 2000 and 2004. That is four times the articles published by the second leading nation, Germany, which accounted for 10.2 % of all stem articles published worldwide. Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, by the way, has the most restrictive policies governing hESCR in all Europe, and led other European nations in the number of articles published. A recent evaluation indicates that Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 is the first country in tems of number of stem cell articles published in scientific journals on a per capita basis. Israel has since 1998 published articles on hESC research in peer-reviewed journals, with 42 publications, compared to 128 by scientists in the US, 30 in the UK, 27 in Korea, 16 in China, 15 in Singapore, 13 each in Australia and Sweden, nine in Canada, five in Japan, four in the Netherlands, three each in Germany and Belgium, two each in Denmark and Finland and one each in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Romania, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and Turkey. All the remaining countries produced no published hESC research at all. Royan Institute is the main stem cell research institute behind Iran's fast progress in this research field.

In 2008, the institute declared that it succeeded in cloning its first ewe . Iran also has become the first country in the Middle East and the fifth in the world to produce human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells(iPSC) .

See also

  • Avicenna Research Institute
    Avicenna Research Institute
    Avicenna Research Institute is a medical research facility that focuses on Reproductive Biotechnology, Nanobiotechnology and Monoclonal antibody research....

  • Health care in Iran
    Health care in Iran
    Health care in Iran and medical sector's market value was almost US $24 billion in 2002 and was forecast to rise to US $31 billion by 2007. With a population of almost 70 million, Iran is one of the most populous countries in the Middle East...

  • California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
    California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
    The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine was created by California's Proposition 71 , which authorized it to issue $3 billion in grants, funded by bonds, over ten years for embryonic stem cell and other biomedical research. It is claimed to be the world's largest single backer of...

  • Genetics Policy Institute
    Genetics Policy Institute
    The Genetics Policy Institute is a 501 nonprofit organization that educates the public and promotes supportive public policy for stem cell research and other forms of cutting-edge medicine....

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