DefiniGEN Joins European Bank for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) Consortium
DefiniGEN Ltd, a leading provider of stem cell life science products and services, has joined the European Bank for induced pluripotent stem cells (EBiSC) consortium. The consortium comprises 26 partners, and has been newly-formed with support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). The EBiSC iPS cell bank will act as a central storage and distribution facility for human iPS cells, to be used by researchers across academia and industry in the study of disease and the development of new therapeutics. DefiniGEN’s role will be to validate EBiSC iPS cell lines by generating liver hepatocyte cells for toxicology, disease modelling, and regenerative medicine applications.
Dr Marcus Yeo, CEO of DefiniGEN, said: “We are delighted to be a part of this ground-breaking consortium which will provide a crucial platform resource to enable the realisation of the full potential of iPS technology.”
Conceptualised and coordinated by Pfizer Ltd in Cambridge, UK and managed by Roslin Cells Ltd in Edinburgh, the EBiSC bank aims to become the European "go to" resource for high quality research-grade human iPS cells. Today, iPS cells are being created in an increasing number of research programmes underway in Europe, but are not being systematically catalogued and distributed at the necessary scale to keep pace with their generation, nor to meet future demand. The €35 million project will support the initial build of a robust, reliable supply chain from the generation of customised cell lines, the specification to internationally accepted quality criteria and their distribution to any global qualified user, ensuring accessibility to consistent, high quality tools for new medicines development.
Ruth McKernan, CSO of Pfizer’s Neusentis research unit, said: “We are excited to be a part of this precompetitive collaboration to build a sustainable repository of high quality human iPS cell lines. For many areas of research in academia and in industry, understanding the biological basis of disease heterogeneity is the next horizon. A bank of well-characterised iPS lines with strong relevance to the entire research community will help us all in our mission to bring therapies to patients.”
Since their discovery by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, iPS cells have been recognised as a break-through technology which is leading to new approaches for the development of medical therapies and for the understanding of genetic diseases. iPS cells are produced in research laboratories by “reprogramming” cells provided by individual donors with appropriate consent, typically skin or certain blood cells. The iPS cells created will then replicate indefinitely or, under controlled conditions, can be “differentiated” into any other cell type such as nerve, heart or liver cells. Researchers are able to use these cells to test how different patients might respond to new drugs or to analyse how genetic diseases develop. iPS cells are particularly important for research on diseases for which it is not possible to obtain relevant tissue samples from living patients — such as neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s Disease.
Numerous research programmes are currently underway in Europe to produce iPS cells from hundreds of different donors. Each programme has its own research goal, but as the iPS cells can be replicated to produce more cells than needed by the project, they could also be used by other researchers. However, the individual projects do not have the financial, technical or human resources to distribute cells to other researchers. This is the task that EBiSC is being established to address.
Aidan Courtney, CEO of Roslin Cells, said: “The consortium includes many of Europe’s leading stem cell scientists and experts in related fields such as data management, law and social sciences. This breadth of expertise will allow EBiSC to establish rigorous methods to ensure that the cells distributed to researchers meet internationally recognised standards and also that their use is consistent with the consent of the tissue donor and the national laws of the country in which the iPS cells were originally generated. We will keep abreast of the fast moving progress in the field of how to make these cells and also provide an on-line resource to pool the results of research undertaken with the catalogue items that we distribute. In this way, EBiSC will create an ever increasing wealth of iPS cells, data and knowledge, which will help advancing drug development and health research.”
Related News
-
News CPHI Podcast Series: The power of proteins in antibody drug development
In the latest episode of the CPHI Podcast Series, Lucy Chard is joined by Thomas Cornell from Abzena to discuss protein engineering for drug design and development. -
News Amgen sues Samsung biologics unit over biosimilar for bone disease
Samsung Bioepis, the biologics unit of Samsung, has been issued a lawsuit brought forth by Amgen over proposed biosimilars of Amgen’s bone drugs Prolia and Xgeva. -
News CPHI Podcast Series: Why we need to consider women in clinical trials
The latest episode of the CPHI Podcast Series with Lucy Chard covers women's health, specifically women's representation in clinical trials, the associated bias, and the impacts on health for this population. -
News US FDA does not approve MDMA therapy for PTSD, requests more data
The MDMA-based therapeutic developed by Lykos Therapeutics, a California-based Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), has been reviewed and unapproved by the US FDA. The regulator has requested additional phase III trial data for further safety and efficacy... -
News Novartis and Viatris latest facing lawsuit over HeLa cell misuse
Global pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Viatris are the latest hit with a lawsuit claim pertaining to alleged misuse of the ‘HeLa’ cell line from the estate of woman whose cancerous tissue cells were taken without consent. -
News Sanofi invests billions into Frankfurt insulin production site
French pharmaceutical company Sanofi have announced an investment of EUR1.3 billion at their existing BioCampus site in Frankfurt am Main for the expansion of insulin production. -
News Novel oral Type 1 diabetes drug gains US FDA IND designation
A University of Alabama at Birmingham startup has gained FDA clearance for Investigational New Drug clinical trials for an oral Type 1 diabetes drug, a milestone for diabetes treatment. -
News A Day in the Life of a Vice President in R&D & Engineering
In the Day in the Life of Series, we've already had the chance to get to know a range of people in various roles in the pharma industry. In the latest interview we get a glimpse into the R&D side of things from Jennifer Sorrells, Vice Presiden...
Position your company at the heart of the global Pharma industry with a CPHI Online membership
-
Your products and solutions visible to thousands of visitors within the largest Pharma marketplace
-
Generate high-quality, engaged leads for your business, all year round
-
Promote your business as the industry’s thought-leader by hosting your reports, brochures and videos within your profile
-
Your company’s profile boosted at all participating CPHI events
-
An easy-to-use platform with a detailed dashboard showing your leads and performance