Yes, [the minister knew we brought the cells from Australia], absolutely. Yes. We were very transparent because this was slightly risky because I checked beforehand, I said, what's my risk because this is not allowed in the Netherlands to derive the line. I'm taking something that cannot be done in the Netherlands back from abroad, and the Dutch law at that point just said, it's just a cell line. There's nothing special about it. It's just like anything. So okay, I did it. And immediately I came back. There were questions in the Houses of Parliament, has Christine Mummery done something illegal? The only precedent was that they, if you are a pedophile and you do something you're not allowed to do in Thailand, you can be prosecuted under Dutch law. So, I was put in the same category of doing something really bad, but there was no law to prevent it. So okay, they said no. The questions were answered properly in the House. There was nothing to be worried about because was nothing against the law, but it meant the legislation went through and it was passed by the lower house and the upper house. And then I applied for a permit to actually be able to do it in the Netherlands, and I got the permit. It was a long process, and in 2003, we derived the first human embryonic stem cells in the Netherlands –

Unbelievable.

Which was very, very cool.

Dr. Christine Mummery is a professor of developmental biology at Leiden University and head of the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center. Her work specializes in stem cell biology, cardiovascular development, and developmental biology.

In 1974, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in physics, electronics, and mathematics from the University of Nottingham, UK and in 1978 received her PhD in biophysics from the University of London, UK for her research at King’s College London. She received a post-doctoral fellowship at the Royal Society, UK from 1978 to 1980, and in 1981 continued her fellowship at the Hubrecht Institute working with carcinoma cells. In 1985, she was appointed to a tenured staff scientist working on developmental biology and differentiation.

In 2011, Dr. Mummery founded the iPSC&OoC Hotel facility in the Leiden University Medical Center. From 2009 to 20019, she was the head of the department of Anatomy and Embryology at Leiden University and guest professor at the University of Twente from 2015 to 2023. She was president of the ISSCR from 2020 to 2021 and is the founding editor of its journal, Stem Cell Reports.

Dr. Mummery has received several awards for her work in developmental biology, including the 2014 Hugo van de Poelgeest Prize for Animal Alternatives, the 2014 Hans Biomendaal Medal for innovative interdisciplinary research, being an elected member of the Academia Europaea in 2015 and Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2010, the 2021 Fondation Lefoulon Delalande-Institut de France prize for cardiovascular physiology, and the ISSCR Public Service Award in 2023.