Professor Melanie Welham’s team at the University of Bath’s Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, collaborating with Professor Adam Nelson at the University of Leeds, [made the discovery]

This breakthrough will help scientists produce large stocks of cells that are needed for developing new medical therapies.

Professor Welham, who is co-director of the University of Bath’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine, explained: “Stem cells have great potential for treating spinal injuries and diseases like type I diabetes because they can change into a range of specialised cell types including nerve or pancreatic cells, which could be used to repair damaged tissues.

“Unfortunately, when you grow stem cells in the lab, they can spontaneously develop into specialised cells, making it difficult to grow large enough stocks to use for medical research.

“We’ve identified a chemical that will put this process on hold for several weeks so that we can grow large numbers of them in their unspecialised state. This is reversible, so when you take it away from the cells, they still have the ability to change into specialised cells.”

The research, supported by funding from the [UK] Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council.