€12M investment to create leading stem cell tools company in France

The genome engineering company Cellectis is to invest €12 million in an industrial-scale stem cell bank to develop tools for use in drug discovery and toxicity testing

The company has signed an agreement with Caisse des Dépôts to finance the project, which it says will create a world-leading stem cell bank for industrial usage by 2015 and create a European leader in induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are adult cells that have been reprogrammed to become stem cells. These cells can then be differentiated into many types of cells, for use in testing new drug compounds for efficacy, or for potential toxic effects on different organs.

Paris-based Cellectis is setting up the stem cell bank through its subsidiary Ectycell, which it formed in August 2009 to commercialise induced pluripotent stem cells as drug discovery tools. “This capital increase will speed-up the development of innovative industrial tools derived from iPS cells,” said David Sourdive, CEO of Ectycell. “The programmes that have been launched should lead to the establishment of a world-leading industrial iPS cell bank in terms of volume and diversity by 2015.”

“This agreement shows that Caisse des Dépôts, as a privileged partner of the state and local government authorities, considers investment in SMEs a priority, helping to strengthen their equity and promote innovation,” said Patrick François, Interregional Director Ile de France of Caisse des Dépôts. “It is in line with the support we provide to the French regional poles of competitiveness initiative by investing in innovation platforms.”

The project will be run with the support of Oseo, the French innovation agency.

iPS cell technologies enable adult cells from sources such as skin or hair to be reprogrammed to behave like stem cells that have the capacity to give rise to any cell type, for example, heart or liver cells. There are numerous potential applications of iPS technologies, which can overcome the volume limitations of the current methods of culturing cells.

The agreement with Caisse des Dépôts sees Cellectis making a further commitment to stem cells, following on from the StemRed project announced last month. This partnership with Etablissement Français du Sang (French Blood Transfusion Agency), aims to produce red blood cells from iPS cells.