Geneva: Human feeder cells for embryonic stem cell development

16 Dec 2008 | News

Licensing opportunity

Anis Feki and collaborators from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland, are looking to license an immortal fibroblast cell-line that constitutively secretes a growth factor that enhances pluritpotency of stem cells.

The human foreskin fibroblast line developed by Feki is immortal and, by virtue of its ability to constitutively produce the basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), can be used as a feeder cell layer to maintain and derive pluripotent stem cells.

This immortal cell line can be used to produce stem cell lines such as human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells with reduced variability.

Feki’s feeder cells can be applied to the development kits to culture human embryonic stem cells as well as induced pluripotent stem cells, and can also be used to screen for molecules that inhibit stem cell proliferation and differentiation.


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