Stem cell collaboration announced
30 Dec 2016 by Evoluted New Media
Two companies have announced a collaboration to develop induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cells and tissues to speed up research in drug discovery.
Two companies have announced a collaboration to develop induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cells and tissues to speed up research in drug discovery.
Axiogenesis, a preclinical biotechnology company will share these cardiomyocytes and neuronal derived stem cells with Metrion Bioscience, a specialist ion channel contract research organisation. In turn Metrion will validate, optimise and commercialise stem cell based assays to facilitate drug discovery.
Dr Marc Rogers, chief scientific officer at Metrion, said: “Metrion is currently working with Axiogenesis induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes to validate its cardiac ion channel assays. This new collaboration will enable us to extend this work, to use iPSC neurons for pain and other neuroscience therapies and to create more predictive neurotoxicology assays that will enable the potential risk and side-effects of new compounds to be assessed more accurately and cost-effectively.”
The collaboration will also help Metrion more accurately predict cardiac arrhythmia and neuronal risk. The contract research organisation will take advantage of Axiogenesis products for optimised ion channel screening, cardiac safety and translational phenotypic assays.
Felix von Haniel, commercial director at Axiogenesis, said: “We greatly value interaction with highly competent and specialist partners like Metrion. This collaboration will expand the range and reach of applications of Axiogenesis cells and assays, and will further underline the predictivity of our cells for drug discovery and safety and toxicology purposes.”
