About Us
Our mission is to provide a FAIR data platform to find and share Australian-made pluripotent stem cell lines with the wider research community. The information gathered on each stem cell line is curated by stem cell experts in our team.
Pluripotent stem cell lines registered in the Australian stem cell registry are Findable, through the search features on this site – you can browse by disease-association, method of manufacture, place of manufacture and other attributes to help you find the best stem cell resources for your research question.
Registering your line supports Accessibility because we provide clear attributions to the facilities who engineered a line, and to custodians of a line. Where possible, we provide details about which lines are available to external parties, by sharing redacted donor information sheets that detail what a line is consented for.
Registered lines are Interoperable because we have adopted the stem cell naming nomenclature from hpscreg.eu to ensure Australian lines have a unique and persistent digital identifier. These identifiers are shared with other databases, to connect information gathered using a line with details about how the line was made.
Registered lines promote Reuse by connecting people and resource sharing across our community.
Funding and Governance
The Australian stem cell registry is developed by a collaborative project between the Stem Cell Systems group and the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform at the University of Melbourne. Consultations with stakeholders in the design and development of the registry was funded by the MRFF Stem Cell Therapies Mission. Governance, implementation and curation of the Australian Stem cell Registry by NCRIS through Phenomics Australia. The website is currently hosted at University of Melbourne with NCRIS resources.
Meet our Team
Prof Christine Wells is the project lead. She is a computational stem cell researcher with expertise in creating community-focused research platforms, including the Stemformatics resource.
Dr Suzy Butcher is the stem cell curator. She trained as a bioinformatician (PhD 2019, University of Melbourne) before recruitment to the Stemformatics project as a dataset curator.
Dr Noel Faux is the backend developer. He is a Senior Research Data Specialist at the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform.
Stefan Miranda is the application developer. He is a graduate student in bioinformatics (University of Melbourne, 2025) and has been developing a bespoke admin interface integrating large language model technology to assist with cell line curation.
Alumni
Dr Stuart Lee was the website developer. He trained as a bioinformatician (PhD 2021, Monash University) and worked for many years in biotech before joining the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, and now has taken up a position as a Senior Research Officer in the Bahlo Lab at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI).
Contact us
If you have any enquires about an individual stem cell line, we encourage you to reach out directly to the custodian of that line.
If you would like to register your line, or update / correct an existing entry, please email Suzy Butcher at suzy dot butcher at unimelb dot edu dot au
If you would like to partner, work or train with us, please email suzy dot butcher at unimelb dot edu dot au
If you have any other general enquires, then please email suzy dot butcher at unimelb dot edu dot au
Check out these resources if you would like to know more about Australian stem cells, or have a question about the use of stem cells to model or treat diseases.