With patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in hand, any lab scientist can follow recipes that convert these embryonic-like stem cells into specific cell types for studying human disease in a petri dish. iPSCs derived from a small skin sample from a Alzheimer’s patient, for instance, can be specialized into neurons – the kind of cell affected by the disease – to examine what goes wrong in an Alzheimer’s patient’s brain or screen drugs that may alleviate the problems.

Neurons created from Alzheimer’s disease patient-derived iPSCs.
Image courtesy Elixirgen Scientific

But not every researcher has easy access to a bank of patient-derived iPSCs and it’s not trivial to coax iPSCs to become a particular cell type. The process is also a time sink and many scientists would rather spend that time doing what they’re good at: uncovering new insights into their disease of interest.

Since the discovery of iPSC technology over a decade ago, countless labs have worked out increasingly efficient variations on the original method. In fact, companies that deliver iPSC-derived products have emerged as an attractive option for the time-strapped stem cell researcher.

One of those companies is Elixirgen Scientific of Baltimore, Maryland. Pardon the pun but Elixirgen has turned the process of making various cell types from iPSCs into a science. Here’s how CEO Bumpei Noda described the company’s value to me:

Bumpei Noda

“Our technology directly changes stem cells into the cells that make up most of your body, such as muscle cells or neural cells, in about one week. Considering that existing technology takes multiple weeks or even months to do the same thing, imagine how much more research can get done than before.”

With Elixirgen’s technology, different “cocktails” of ingredients can quickly and efficiently turn iPSCs into many different human cell types. Image courtesy Elixirgen Scientific

Their technology is set to become an even greater resource for researchers based on their announcement yesterday that they’ve signed a licensing agreement to sell human disease cells that were generated from CIRM’s iPSC Repository.

Stephen Lin

“The CIRM Repository holds the largest publicly accessible collection of human iPSCs in the world and is the result of years of coordinated efforts of many groups to create a leading resource for disease modeling and drug discovery using stem cells,” said Stephen Lin, a CIRM Senior Science Officer who oversees the cell bank.

 

The repository currently contains a collection of 1,600 cell lines derived from patients with diseases that are a source of active research, including autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, lung disease, hepatitis C, fatty liver disease, and more (visit our iPSC Repository web page for the complete list).

While this wide variety of patient cells lines certainly played a major role in Elixirgen’s efforts to sign the agreement, Noda also noted that the CIRM Repository “has rich clinical and demographic data and age-matched control cell lines” which is key information to have when interpreting the results of experiments and drug screening.

Lin also points out another advantage to the CIRM cells:

“It’s one of the few collections with a streamlined route to commercialization (i.e. pre-negotiated licenses) that make activities like Elixirgen’s possible. iPSC technology is still under patent and technically cannot be used for drug discovery without those legal safeguards. That’s important because if you do discover a drug using iPSCs without taking care of these licensing agreements, your discovery could be owned by that original intellectual property holder.”

At CIRM, we’re laser-focused on accelerating stem cell treatments to patients with unmet medical needs. That’s why we’re excited that Elixirgen Scientific has licensed access to the our iPSC repository. We’re confident their service will help researchers work more efficiently and, in turn, accelerate the pace of new discoveries.