ORIG3N, an innovative biotech company that creating the world’s largest blood cell repository for induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell) production. I first met James Lovgren, Chief Business Officer of ORIG3N, at the World Stem Cell Summit in 2015. As a result of that connection and conversation, I am pleased to share this interview with him below. [Read more…]
Using HLA “Super Donors”, ORIG3N’s Crowdsourced Cell Repository Contains Donor Matches for 90% of U.S.
ORIG3N announced it has identified “super donor” matches for 90 percent of the U.S. population. The discovery will accelerate how quickly and successfully we match people for transplants, as tissue can be generated from these cells. ORIG3N was able to achieve this milestone approximately 5x faster than its Japanese counter parts because it has built the world’s largest crowdsourced cell repository called LifeCapsule.
HLA is short for “human leukocyte antigen.” It is a gene complex encoding the cell-surface proteins that control regulation of the human immune system. More simply, it is a protein found on most cells of your body that determines how your body recognizes what is you versus other.
HLA “super donors” are people with tissues that are immunologically compatible with a large percentage of the human population. They are very rare in the population, making them difficult to identify.
The signficanceof this announcement by ORIG3N is that for the first time in history, a complete set of matched samples has been identified and can be industrially produced. Utilizing induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, any of the 200+ tissues that compose the human body can now be created.
Importantly, these tissues would be an exact match to the individuals requiring them, even though they were derived from another person (an allogenic transplant).
According to ORIG3N, in the near future, this approach may allow people to rapidly get an exact match for a transplant, instead of waiting for months. Instead, tissues could be “pre-produced.”
For more information, visit www.orig3n.com.
ORIG3N and Kangstem Biotech Partner to Investigate Induced Neural Stem Cells for Disease Modeling
Boston biotech company ORIG3N has announced a collaboration with South Korea’s Kangstem Biotech in a joint effort to gain insight on the effectiveness of induced neural stem cells (iNSC) in disease modeling. As a pioneer of regenerative medicine, ORIG3N is leading the way towards the future of medicine by crowdsourcing blood samples to create the world’s largest and most diverse biorepository of stem cells.
As part of this collaboration, Kangstem Biotech will be providing iNSC’s to ORIG3N for research. This partnership between a pioneer in the biotechnology industry and one of the largest global biopharmaceutical companies is an exciting development in regenerative medicine. [Read more…]
ORIG3N Opens Laboratory and Expanded Headquarters to Support World’s Largest Crowdsourced Biorepository of iPSCs
In major news released today, ORIG3N announced that it has opened a new regenerative medicine laboratory and expanded headquarters in Boston.
Founded in 2014, ORIG3N is creating the world’s largest crowdsourced biorepository of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) called LifeCapsule™. It uses these blood cells to produce patient-specific iPSCs to grow different cell types, including heart cells (cardiomyocytes), liver cells (hepatocytes), brain cells (neurons), and more.
In addition to collecting donated blood samples for iPSC production, ORIG3N offers an optional LifeCapsule membership, in which individuals can pay $99/year to get permanent access to their own immortalized iPS cells. ORIG3N also has two other business units, LifeProfile and LifeSystems, which are discussed in detail in the interview below.
Learn more by reading the full press release below, printed with permission from Julie Hall, Managing Director of Havas Health and media contact for ORIG3N. [Read more…]
Top 5 Stem Cell Interviews of 2015
As 2016 approaches, it is an important time to look back on 2015 and all that the year entailed for stem cell advances. During 2016, I was honored to have interviewed a number of key thought leaders in the stem cell space, including the CEO of the largest dental stem cell company in the world (Tony Veverka of BioEden), Chief Business Officer for a company creating the world’s largest blood cell repository for iPSC production (James Lovgren of ORIG3N), and VP of Research and Development for one of the most innovative companies operating within the stem cell sector (Dr. Grynspan of Stem Cell Medicine).
Throughout 2015, my team and I conducted dozens of other interviews as well, with stem cell executives, investors, and researchers. These interviews were published on our stem cell industry blog and also informed market projections for BioInformant’s stem cell and cord blood market intelligence reports. [Read more…]




