Partners will share cell lines for drug screening and cell-based therapeutics.
Izumi Bio and Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application will collaborate on research, development, and applications of induced pluripotent stem cell technology to advance drug discovery and cell-based therapies for patients.
The organizations’ researchers will share some cell lines. iZumi and CiRA both offer the capability to take skin cells from a diseased patient with known genotypic and phenotypic information and reprogram them to behave similarly to human embryonic stem cells. The parties will conduct comparison and characterization studies independently but will share the best methods to produce appropriate cell lines for drug screening and development as well as those best suited for cell-based therapy.
The focus for iZumi will be three neurological disorders: Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and spinal muscular atrophy.
“Our approach is based on a paradigm shift that puts the patient at the forefront of the drug discovery process,” says John P. Walker, iZumi CEO. “Using patient and disease-specific cells to develop assays and screening systems has the potential to change the way drug discovery has been conducted to date by shortening the time to clinic through the selection of drug candidates with a higher probability of success.”
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Past Deals on Stem Cell Technology in R&D
PerkinElmer to Continue Cord Blood Stem Cell Partnership with M.D. Anderson (Jan. 16, 2009)
VistaGen and Capsant to Develop Stem Cell Technology for Drug R&D (Jan. 15, 2009)
BioTime Licenses Human Embryonic Stem Cell Technology from WARF (Jan. 9, 2008)
