Obituary: Dr Stephen Lewis Minger

Dr Stephen Minger, was born in New Orleans in 1955, one of three children in a military family which required them to move home a number of times, including a long spell in Germany. After returning to the US, Stephen initially took a break from education (I recall a story about perilous forklift truck driving), but then returned to academia and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1986. He obtained a doctorate in pathology and neuroscience from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York in 1992. This was followed by postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Diego where he first began to research neural stem cell biology.

In 1995, Stephen was made assistant professor in neurology at the University of Kentucky Medical School but transferred his research programme to Guy's Hospital in London in 1996. In 1998, Stephen became a lecturer in biomolecular sciences at King's College, London (KCL) and was later made a senior lecturer and appointed as director of the stem cell biology laboratory at KCL in 2002 – a post he held until 2009.

During his time at KCL, Stephen's laboratory was awarded one of the first two licences to generate human embryonic stem cell lines by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the UK regulator of IVF and embryo research. It was also during this time that Stephen co-founded the London Regenerative Medicine Network, which thrived for many years. Its events attracted global luminaries from the cell therapy world and were always hugely oversubscribed. There were numerous memorable talks, always followed by drinks which often went on well into the night.

One weekend in 2006, I met Stephen and a colleague from Newcastle University for a drink to discuss a new research proposal and they wanted to pick my brains about it. The idea was to use cow and rabbit eggs to create human-animal hybrid embryos (or 'mootants' as Stephen called them) for research purposes. The first question was whether such embryos would fall under the HFEA's remit, and – if so – whether they would grant a licence permitting their creation. I remember Stephen saying that he did not anticipate the project generating much interest. This proved to be very wrong.

At the end of 2006, the UK Government proposed a ban on hybrid embryo research following a public consultation, and there followed a lengthy campaign to urge the Government to reconsider its position. As Fiona Fox puts it in her review of this episode in her 2022 book 'Beyond the Hype', this was an unprecedented fightback against a government ban on legitimate research. It required Stephen to make his first foray into political lobbying, and it propelled him into the limelight as a leading spokesperson on the scientific, moral and ethical issues involved. The campaign was successful, and KCL and Newcastle were both granted HFEA licences in 2008.

In 2009, Stephen was appointed director of research and development for cell technologies at GE Healthcare's Life Sciences business. In 2013, he became chief scientist for cellular sciences, with responsibility for their global research strategy for the development of cell therapies, regenerative medicine, diagnostic imagining and precision diagnostics. Both roles required him to travel extensively, seemingly spending as much time in airport lounges as he did at home in Chiswick. Stephen retired from GE in 2015, though remained a senior consultant until 2018.

Stephen's other positions (whether as founder, member, consultant or adviser) are too numerous to list in full, but some particularly notable achievements include:

• Sitting as the stem cell expert and member of the UK Gene Therapy Advisory Committee from 2006-2012.
• Working as the focal point for regenerative medicine, drug discovery and modernisation of traditional Chinese medicine in China for the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills from 2006-2009.
• Working as a consultant and reviewer on the European Union's Research and Technological Development frameworks.
• Sitting as a member of the Grants Working Group of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
• Sitting as a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for the Commercialisation of Regenerative Medicine, from 2010-2017.

Dismayed by the outcome of the Brexit referendum in the UK, Stephen decided to look for a new home abroad. He moved permanently to Ljubljana in 2019, becoming a Slovenian citizen in 2023. There. he helped found and became chief scientific director of Bio-ReCell, continuing his lifelong passion for developing new technologies and cell therapies.

Throughout his adult life, Stephen maintained a thirst for knowledge and discovery. There was no TV in his home in London, but the walls were lined with books. He read voraciously and always kept up with journal articles and new publications, sending out regular email updates to his friends about interesting papers he had read up until weeks before his death. As one of his friends and colleagues, Professor Primož Rožman, said in his eulogy at Stephen's funeral on 1 August 2024, Stephen dedicated his life to advancing medical knowledge and pushing the boundaries of regenerative medicine: 'He was a true visionary with a prodigious talent and inspired everyone he knew'.

I was fortunate enough to travel to numerous conferences and meetings around the world with Stephen. I was always struck that wherever we went in the world, from Beijing to Brussels, we would meet people who clearly adored him. These were not just academic collaborators or business connections, but people who had got to know him and grown to love him. He will be greatly missed by many. To quote Professor Rožman once again, he was 'a man who touched many lives and forever left a mark in our hearts'.