Cellular Dynamics International and Coriell Institute for Medical Research will receive two multimillion-dollar grant awards from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
CIRM awarded CDI $16 million to create three induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines for each of 3,000 healthy and diseased donors.
iPSCs have the potential to be reprogrammed into any cell type in the human body, and CDI already routinely manufactures heart cells, neurons, liver cells, and endothelial cells. The cells can be created from any individual, and thus provide a tool for studying genetic variation between individuals and for understanding disease.
With this grant, tissue samples will be taken from patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorders, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodevelopmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy and infantile epilepsy. Other tissue samples will be taken from patients with diseases of the eye or respiratory diseases.
CDI will generate the iPSCs using the episomal, or footprint-free, reprogramming method that it first developed. Using the technique CDI pioneered to create iPSCs from blood, patient samples will be collected primarily from standard doctor’s office blood draws.
Cellular Dynamics was founded in 2004 by Dr. James Thomson, a pioneer in human pluripotent stem cell research at the UW-Madison. Iroically, CIRM once challenged the validity of stem cell patents held by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the university’s licensing arm.
Bob Palay, chairman and chief executive officer of CDI, said CIRM’s human iPSC banking initiative will create the world’s largest human iPSC bank. CIRM was established to accelerate stem cell research in California by the establishment of a $3 billion fund approved by taxpayers. The most recent initiative earmarked $32.3 million for human iPSC initiatives, including tissue sample collection, iPSC derivation, and biobanking.
In addition to the Cellular Dynamics grant, CIRM awarded Coriell Institute for Medical Research nearly $10 million to set up and biobank the iPSC lines, for which CDI will be the primary subcontractor. Coriell Institute will establish a biorepository for managing sample collection, tracking, and safe storage for the worldwide distribution of iPSCs generated by CDI.
