Research collaboration
Scotland’s publicly funded technology development company ITI Life Sciences said it reached the first technical milestone in its stem cell technologies R&D programme, and as a result Dundee University has joined the £9.5 million programme, which started in January 2007.
The programme was set up to develop automated methods for producing high volumes of high quality human stem cells. Currently, this capability does not exist anywhere in the world.
The initial phase of the programme focused on developing optimal conditions under which human embryonic stem (hES) cells can be screened for their ability to differentiate into specific cells. Having achieved this step, ITI Life Sciences is now bringing in Dundee’s complementary screening expertise.
Professor Julie Frearson from the university said, “Novel technologies, such as these under development within the ITI programme, require expertise across a range of disciplines. Groups with such complementary skills [can] collaborate effectively in a situation that otherwise could not exist in any single emerging company or university.”
The ITI programme is using pre-existing hES cell lines to develop a robust and standardised procedure for generating multiple human cell lines from undifferentiated hES cells. Initially, these will be used in drug discovery, but the aim of the programme is to develop clinical grade cell lines.
ITI Life Sciences will own all intellectual property generated by the programme.
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