iPS cells Archives | BioInformant

Takara Bio Establishes Foothold in the Pluripotent Stem Cell Market

March 20, 2019 By Cade Hildreth (CEO)

Takara Bio broke news that the Medical Products Agency (“MPA”), the Swedish national authority responsible for regulation of drug and medical products, granted the company a manufacturing license for derivation and banking of human embryonic stem (hES) cells to be produced under GMP conditions. The cells will be produced at Takara Bio’s manufacturing laboratory located in Göteborg, Sweden, within Takara Bio Europe’s facility.

The announcement caught my attention, because to the best of my knowledge, Takara Bio is the first company worldwide to offer this service for human ESCs.

Takara Bio’s Role with Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

The significance of this event is that Takara Bio is now capable of providing a safe, reliable source of hES cells for future cellular therapeutic development by sourcing starting material from FDA-compliant facilities according to FDA guidelines and leveraging its proprietary, feeder-free hES cell establishment method, which is animal- and human-component free. [Read more…]

iPS Cell Market Poised for Burgeoning Growth

November 20, 2018 By Cade Hildreth (CEO)

Recent years have seen major advances in the clinical applications of iPSCs, with Cynata Therapeutics progressing the world’s first formal trial of an iPSC-derived cell therapeutic and demonstrating that CYP-001, its lead iPSC-derived mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) product candidate, met all safety and efficacy endpoints in its Phase 1 trial for GvHD.

With multiple physician-led iPSC studies also underway in Japan for applications ranging from Parkinson’s disease to heart disease, the iPSC market is poised to for burgeoning growth. There has also been dramatic progress with production and differentiation technologies related to iPSCs, as well as growing use of iPSCs within drug discovery, disease modelling, tissue engineering, and precision medicine. [Read more…]

What Are Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells? | iPS Cell Definition

October 3, 2018 By Cade Hildreth (CEO)

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are differentiated cells that are reprogrammed back into an embryonic-like state. Derived from skin or blood cells, iPS cells are not controversial, because they are made from adult cells. As pluripotent stem cells, they can give rise to nearly all of the tissues that form the human body. [Read more…]

Parkinson’s Disease Treatment Using Reprogrammed Stem Cells

October 2, 2018 By Cade Hildreth (CEO)

Anyone who has ever watched a friend or loved one succumb to the slow degradation of Parkinson’s disease will understand the urge to cure it. Read on to learn more about how stem cells could be a possible treatment option for Parkinson’s disease.

In this article:

What Causes Parkinson’s Disease?
How Do Stem Cells Work?
What Stem Cells Did Scientists Use to Accomplish This?
What Are the Challenges of Using Stem Cells to Cure Parkinson’s?
What Are the Benefits?

[Read more…]

Kyoto University to Launch iPS Cell Clinical Trial for Parkinson’s Disease

August 5, 2018 By Cade Hildreth (CEO)

July 30, 2018 (Kyoto, Japan) – Kyoto University Hospital, in partnership with the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, has planned physician-initiated clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease that transplants dopaminergic progenitors¹ generated from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The clinical trial notification was submitted to the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA; the Japanese equivalent of the FDA) on June 4, 2018, and the clinical trials are scheduled to begin on August 1 this year. [Read more…]