Licensing deal
Cambridge Enterprise Limited – the University of Cambridge’s technology transfer company – has signed an agreement to license certain technologies for reprogramming adult cells into stem cells to Cambridge-based company Stem Cell Sciences.
The agreement relates specifically to patents and know-how for technologies used to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from mammalian cells, created by Professor Austin Smith, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge, and Chairman of Stem Cell Sciences’ scientific advisory board.
Unlike other methods to produce stem cells, this new approach does not require mammalian embryos as the starting point. It is thought that high-quality stem cells have enormous potential in medical research, drug discovery and for the development of cell-based therapies.
Dr Iain Thomas, Head of Life Sciences, Cambridge Enterprise, said: “We are delighted to be working with both Professor Austin Smith and Stem Cell Sciences to commercialise this technology, which has the real potential to revolutionise stem cell research and contribute to the development of new therapies.”
The new licence forms part of Stem Cell Sciences’ continuing collaboration with Professor Smith, whose earlier discoveries at the University of Edinburgh have also been exclusively in-licensed by the company.
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