Patient specific induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells

products-servicesEvercyte GmbH

August 25th 2014

Overview

Evercyte is a leader in generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines derived non-invasively from urine samples from any consenting individual without any ethical concerns. Using mRNA technology, exfoliated proximal tubular epithelial cells from urine can be successfully reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells, which express all essential markers and functions of pluripotent stem cells such as differentiation towards cell types of all three germ layers.

Thus, Evercyte has established a tool for establishment of specific cell lines without limitations from healthy and diseased people, with potential in the field of in-vitro test system as well as the development of novel autologous cell-based therapeutic strategies.

Features

Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells from urine cells, which can be obtained from any consenting individual
Generation of pluripotent stem cells without any ethical concerns
Generation of integration-free induced pluripotent stem cells for safe cell-based therapies
Differentiation of urine-derived iPS cell lines towards several lineages such as cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, neuronal cells, macrophages or podocytes
Genetically engineering of patient specific iPS cell lines

Applications

Establishment of in-vitro test systems with highly relevant human cell cultures from healthy and diseased donors
Autologous cell-based therapies

Advantages

In summary, Evercyte-generated iPS cells offer several advantages over conventionally used pluripotent stem cells:

Evercyte generated induced pluripotent stem cells from urine cells, which can be obtained non-invasively, without any ethical concerns from any consenting individual
iPS cells can be derived patient-specific
Evercyte uses mRNA transfection for introduction of the reprogramming factors and thus generates safe, integration-free iPS cell lines for potential clinical applications
Evercyte has established several protocols for differentiation of the iPS cells from healthy and diseased donors into highly differentiated, specialized cells

Technology and ethics

Evercyte has with its co-founders Regina and Johannes Grillari 15 years of experience in cell and molecular biology documented by more than 100 SCI publications and eight patents.

iPS cell generation is based on reprogramming of human urine-derived cells, using a technology developed in cooperation with the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and health (GIBH), Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Integration-free reprogramming of these cells is based on mRNA transfections, a technology that is licensed in from Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.

All studies performed at Evercyte GmbH are in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki since the local ethical commission has approved them and the donors gave their informed consent.