Tehran, February 4, The Iran Project � An official says Iran is at forefront of science production and research in stem cells in the region and is able to stand among top ten countries in the world by next ten years.

Speaking to a reporter, Hassan Niknejad, the Dean of the School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences noted the latest developments in the area of stem cells in Iran, saying that Iran currently ranks first in stem cells production in the region and will be among top ten countries in the world by next ten years.

Referring to Iran's Supreme Leader emphasis on development in this field, he added that top countries have begun their scientific move in this area before the incidence of Islamic revolution meaning far earlier than Iran.

"Since 1998, four centers of Tarbiat Modares University, Royan Institute, Shahid Beheshti University and the University of Tehran started conducting research projects on the topic," he underlined elsewhere in his remarks.

He went on to say that in less than 20 years of academic work, Iran has achieved remarkable progress in this field.

Pointing to Iran's rank in the figures released by Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database, he explained that Iran ranks 15th in production of stems cell science in the world and first in the region.