Licensing opportunity
Researchers at Edinburgh University, Scotland, have developed a new method for producing a neural tumour stem cell line using a reliable method of purification, which retains the characteristics of the tumour from which it was derived, and can be differentiated into various neural cell types.
Despite the likely usefulness of glioma neural cancer stem cell lines in drug screening and research, no one has successfully purified and propagated tthese cells in vitro. The Edinburgh researchers have shown that a subpopulation of putative cancer stem cells can be isolated from diverse adult and childhood brain tumours, using the neural stem cell marker CD133, and these can initiate tumour formation following xenotransplantation.
These cells can be used to develop drug screening assays, to identify genetic markers for diagnosis and to improve selection of drug therapy for patients with brain tumours.
A patent, “Neural tumour stem cells and methods of use thereof” has been filed and the university is seeking commercial partners to license this stem cell technology. Cell lines are available and samples can be made available for evaluation under a material transfer agreement.
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