23 Jun Cellular Dynamics & National Eye Institute announce new partnership
By Jeff Buchanan, Xconomy
Since Fujifilm acquired Cellular Dynamics International for $307 million last year, CDI hasn’t made any major declarations regarding when—or how—it would use products manufactured by its parent company.
That changed on Wednesday, when CDI, the Madison, WI-based provider of human cells, said it had entered into a collaboration with the National Eye Institute (NEI), one of the National Institutes of Health.
Like CDI’s agreement with the NEI announced in 2014, the new partnership is aimed at making stem cells and retinal cells for use in the development of a therapy for retinal degenerative disease. However, the more recent deal also includes the goal of creating a “biocompatible, biodegradable scaffold,” CDI says in a press release. Researchers would be able to create and grow cell tissue on these scaffolds, CDI says, and they could potentially be made of Fujifilm-developed recombinant peptides.
CDI chief executive Kaz Hirao, who prior to the acquisition managed business development for Fujifilm’s pharmaceutical division, in November told Xconomy that Fujifilm intends to become the global leader in regenerative medicine. CDI, whose induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be differentiated into any type of cell found in the human body, can help further that aim through the company’s collaborations with the NEI, he says.
“While iPSC-derived cells have great potential for regenerative medicine applications, there are many hurdles yet to overcome,” Hirao says in a prepared statement. “This agreement builds on the longstanding relationship between CDI and the National Eye Institute to address some of these hurdles, and may lead to iPSC-based therapies for patients with serious diseases of the eye.”
Under the terms of the deal, CDI and the NEI will develop up to five lines of iPSCs. These cells will be matched using the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system, a gene complex encoding proteins responsible for the regulation of the immune system. CDI has said this process is key to stem cell transplants because the immune system considers cells without matching HLA to be foreign invaders, resulting in immune rejection. Read more …