Technique for Rapidly Reprogramming Adult Cells Into Stem Cells Published in PL...( - Technology In-Licensed by Stem Cell...),Health

- Technology In-Licensed by Stem Cell Sciences From University of Cambridge

- ("Stem Cell Sciences", "SCS", "the Company")

CAMBRIDGE, England, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Stem Cell Sciences plc (AIM: STEM, ASX: STC), a company focused on the commercialisation of stem cells and stem cell technologies, notes that a paper describing a technique for reprogramming adult mammalian cells into authentic induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has been published in PLoS Biology, the peer-reviewed scientific journal from the Public Library of Science (PLoS)(1). This rapid and reliable new approach for generating pluripotent stem cells without using mammalian embryos uses the combination of chemical inhibitors in SCS' Culticell iSTEM(TM) media range to overcome serious limitations in current approaches for producing such cells. Induced pluripotent stem cells are expected to have enormous potential in medical research, drug discovery and for the development of cell-based therapies.

The newly described technique, which was developed by Professor Austin Smith and his team at the University of Cambridge, features a key proprietary step that forms the basis of a licence agreement signed recently between SCS and Cambridge Enterprise, the technology transfer company for the University of Cambridge. The licence is a significant addition to SCS' strong portfolio of intellectual property around the development and commercialisation of stem cell technologies.

The key step as described in the PLoS publication for this rapid and new approach for making iPS cells occurs at the transition point between incomplete and complete reprogramming to pluripotency. Previous studies have indicated that progression through the transition point had been notoriously inefficient, but now via the use of chemical inhibitors (of the enzymes MEK and GSK3) in combination with the cell growth promoter, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), the inefficient process has been dramatica
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