February 20, 2012
Cellartis AB to be partner in a major multinational IMI project supported by the European Commission and the European Pharmaceutical Industry
FEBRUARY 20, 2012, Gothenburg, Sweden
Cellartis AB, part of Cellectis stem cells
• The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is Europe's largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients.
• IMI supports collaborative research projects and builds networks of industrial and academic experts in order to boost pharmaceutical innovation in Europe.
• IMI is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association EFPIA.
The current test systems employed by industry are poorly predictive for liver toxicity, especially Drug Induced Liver Injury (DILI). The MIP-DILI project will address this situation by the development of innovative preclinical liver test systems that are both mechanism-based and of physiological, pharmacological and pathological relevance to DILI in humans. An iterative approach with respect to test compounds, test systems, bioanalysis and systems analysis will be adopted to evaluate existing models and develop new models that can provide validated test systems with respect to the prediction of specific forms of DILI. The applicability of hESC and hiPSC technology, including their utility as a source for hepatocytes will be tested. In collaboration with academic partners Cellartis will generate hiPSC-lines from DILI and non-DILI sensitive individuals. These lines will be characterised, expanded and banked, and will ultimately generate hepatocytes for use in this project. Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) have evolved as a powerful possibility for toxicity testing as they can be grown indefinitely and possess the capacity to differentiate into a broad range of cell types. They can be amplified to produce large quantities of differentiated cells and they remain the gold standard of pluripotent stem cells. Moreover, during the last three years, advances in cellular reprogramming have demonstrated that ectopic expression of defined transcriptional factors can cause human somatic cells to revert to a pluripotent state. These reprogrammed cells, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) closely resemble hESC, and since they can be generated from theoretically any adult cell type they have the potential to represent an ideal source for generating patient-specific cells (DILI) for applications in this project. The acquisition of Cellartis is in line with Cellectis’ strategy to become the global market leader for stem cell-based in vitro models and related technologies. It makes it possible to considerably accelerate our development in this field. » said André Choulika, Chairman and CEO of Cellectis.
About Cellectis stem cells: Cellectis stem cells speeds up the development of stem cell technology in particular to find a robust and reproducible way of controlling stem cell production and differentiation. Cellectis stem cells becomes a major, long-term and stable industrial player in the global marketplace.
Cellartis AB is a premier provider of stem cell derived products and technologies which will drive unprecedented innovation in drug discovery and regenerative medicine today and in the future. For more information, visit www.cellartis.com.
About Cellectis Cellectis improves life by applying its genome engineering expertise to a broad range of applications, including human therapeutics, biological research and agriculture. Cellectis is listed on the NYSE-Euronext Paris Alternext market (code: ALCLS). To find out more, visit www.cellectis.com.