Cellular Dynamics In-Licenses Patent Portfolio for Stem Cell-Derived Cells

Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) has announced that it has exclusively in-licensed a US-issued patent portfolio on optimizing the stem cell differentiation selection process and on using heart cells (cardiomyocytes) in drug testing.

The license, obtained from Dr Loren Field and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), covers two concepts for using stem cell-derived cells for drug screening. First, the Field patents cover a cell purification strategy that enables greater than 90 percent purity of any type of cells. Secondly, the Field patents cover the use of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes for drug testing. Financial terms of the license were not disclosed.

The license enables CDI to optimize the process of developing and purifying different cell types created from human pluripotent stem cells, including the company's first commercially available product line, human cardiomyocytes.

Under the licensed technology, pluripotent stem cells are engineered to include a selectable "marker." As the stem cells begin to differentiate into different terminal cell types (eg, heart, blood, neural cells, etc), the marker allows researchers to identify and select a particular cell type (eg, heart cells) and produce a highly purified and functional cell population.

The license also covers the use of cardiomyocytes purified through this technology for drug testing. While cardiomyocytes are the company's entree into the market, the company has programs in place for developing multiple cell types, and the Field patents enable the company to develop them into highly purified populations. CDI is using the Field technology in conjunction with the patents it has licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), UW-Madison's tech-transfer vehicle, to create a pipeline that mass produces cells for large-scale drug screening campaigns at pharmaceutical companies and for regenerative medicine applications.