Identifier: KD10PSW
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide an option for the production of stem cells from any person, through epigenetic modification, resulting in conversion of adult somatic cells (like blood cells or urine cells) into stem cells which can produce all tissue cell types. This provides the promise of personalised regenerative medicine.
The main problem is that production of such cells is slow and also very inefficient. For this reason, such a service is only present at private research institutions for a high price and after a number of months. We, have come up with a protocol for rapid cheap production of induced pluripotent stem cells without any genetic modification and within less than a month at a rate of about 80% conversion from cord blood mononuclear cells, as opposed to rates of 1% internationally. Apart from that, the agents required for conversion are inexpensive and readily available, only requiring repurposing.
This method has been extended to include peripheral blood cells and will be further tested on fibroblasts and urine cells. Developing a similarly successful rate of conversion will help to massively enhance the potential benefits due to being able to make these cells easily from any adult.
iPSCs could provide rapid availability of cells derived from each individual to produce any tissue types needed even possibly in advance, for prophylaxis. These cells would be the patient’s own cells, thus avoiding both rejection as well as dangerous immune invisibility. The rapid development at low cost would make these cells viable both as widespread therapeutics as well as for scientific use, experimentation and research purposes. Pharmaceutical companies could also license the protocol to produce cell lines for drug testing.
The protocol is also an easy to follow protocol, which could be transformed into a lab iPSC kit for research purposes.
The technology is still being developed (estimated at TRL 4). The protocol to convert cells into iPSCs first started with using cord blood mononuclear cells. The protocol has been optimised for peripheral blood cells, where only a small sample of the blood is obtained. This is a significant improvement to set up this protocol in clinical settings. The next step is to optimise the protocol to GMP standard and develop it further for urine cells and fibroblasts. An option agreement has also been set up with a company for the development of a kit to produce iPSCs.
Patent pending. A patent application (2100365.2) was filed on the 12th January 2021 with the UK Patent Office.
A spin-out company has been set up to commercialise this technology – De Novo Cell Ltd. (C97576). De Novo Cell intends to carry out research to develop the protocol in a specific clinical areas and will work on sub-licensing the protocol in other different fields of clinical research.
We are looking for a partner who would be interested in researching different clinical fields. We are also looking for pharmaceutical companies who are interested in developing cell lines to be used for drug testing during the drug development process.