CDI (Cellular Dynamics International), a leader in developing induced pluripotent stem cell technologies for in vitro drug development, in vivo cellular therapeutic research and stem cell banking was granted patent no. US8557580 on October 15, 2013 entitled “Methods and Compositions for the Differentiation of Stem Cells” by USPTO. The patent was about the method by which stem cells are induced to differentiate into different types of endothelial (blood vessel) and hematopoietic cells (blood).
The independent claim reads:
Claim 1. A method for differentiating a human pluripotent stem cell into a CD34+ progenitor cell comprising:
a) culturing a pluripotent stem cell in a first culture medium that is free or essentially free of feeder cells, the culture comprising a matrix component, wherein said culturing includes
i) dispersing a pluripotent stem cell colony or clonal cell grouping to form dispersed essentially individual cells, and
ii) seeding the dispersed cells into the first culture medium at a density of from about 10,000 stem cells per square centimeter of culturing surface to less than 50,000 stem cells per square centimeter of culturing surface; and
b) differentiating the dispersed cells in a differentiation culture medium comprising at least one recombinant growth factor selected from the group consisting of BMP-4, VEGF, and bFGF, under a hypoxic atmosphere having less than or equal to 5.5% oxygen for a period of time to provide the CD34+ progenitor cells.
The method was used by CDI for creating their products namely iCell (R) and MyCell(R) and makes the production of high quality cells possible. Endothelial cells are used in the research of vascular diseases that includes atherosclerosis (accumulation of plaques in blood vessels that damages tissue and lead to cell damage), inflammatory response to injury, healing of tissue and formation of blood vessels. Cell types that are included in hematopoietic cells are erythroid cells (RBC), lymphocytes (WBC) and myelocytes (Bone marrow cells). If these cells are available readily then improvements in clinical setting like cancer treatments, cell-based therapies, organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases could be achieved.
In this year, CDI was issued this as fifth patent and on this achievement Bob Palay, Chairman and CEO of CDI stated that the patent covered a method that would be reliable and scalable to create consistent supply of blood vessels and the cells for the same from iPS would be of high quality and purity. He also talked about the company’s commitment towards innovation and would work to create tissue cells that are critical to research that would have an impact on human health.
