STEMCELL Technologies Inc. Obtains License from iPS Academia Japan for Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Technologies

STEMCELL Technologies Inc. has signed an agreement to license iPS Academia Japan’s induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell) technologies. This agreement will enable STEMCELL Technologies to develop media that are optimized for cellular reprogramming, further expanding its extensive portfolio of products designed to facilitate cutting-edge pluripotent stem cell research.

The iPS cell technologies developed by iPS Academia Japan are the result of the groundbreaking research of Professor Shinya Yamanaka of the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at the University of Kyoto, Japan. iPS cells hold immense potential for drug development and disease modeling. Patient-derived cells can be reprogrammed using iPS cell technology and subsequently differentiated into specific cell types of diverse lineages. This enables researchers to develop patient-specific cell lines for, among other applications, screening potential treatments. The personalized nature of this approach ensures greater predictive accuracy in terms of disease modeling and treatment outcome.

Dr. Allen Eaves, President and CEO of STEMCELL Technologies, commented: “STEMCELL Technologies’ goal is to help researchers by providing the best culture media for the derivation, maintenance and differentiation of both iPS cells and ES cells, thereby facilitating the development of clinical applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine”.

This agreement will ensure that STEMCELL Technologies continues to offer the most complete, defined system of integrated tools for human pluripotent stem cell research. These include mTeSR™1, the most widely published feeder-free cell culture medium for human embryonic stem cells (ES cells) and iPS cells, and TeSR™-E8™, a low-protein medium containing only the essential 8 ingredients for the culture of ES cells and iPS cells. The STEMdiff™ product line features robust reagents and protocols to reliably differentiate human pluripotent stem cells to various lineages. These high-quality defined reagents for pluripotent cell culture increase experimental reproducibility, eliminate variable biological elements in the culture media and increase the clinical relevance of ES cell and iPS cell research.