London, UK, 13 February 2008. Plasticell, the biotechnology company developing regenerative drugs using high throughput stem cell technologies, has entered into an agreement with King’s College London (London, UK) to exploit and market two human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines.
hESC lines are specialized cells capable of forming all tissues of the body, and are thus a source of human cells for research and transplantation therapy. While a large number of hESC lines are thought to have been derived worldwide to date, very few are ethically compliant, well characterized and of proven practical utility.
Under the terms of the agreement, Plasticell has obtained a licence to make, have made, use and sell the hESC lines KCL-001 and KCL-002 which were derived at King’s College London by researchers based at Guy’s Hospital, a leading UK fertility and stem cell research centre.
All lines are fully compliant with UK ethical and regulatory requirements and will be shipped to Plasticell’s customers and collaborators directly via the UK Stem Cell Bank, ensuring the distribution of cells that meet the highest quality control standards.
Having previously obtained rights to six hESC lines owned by Axordia Ltd, Plasticell is now in a position to exploit commercially eight different hESC lines, four of which are currently available from the UK Stem Cell Bank.
About Plasticell
Plasticell is a privately held, London-based biotechnology company using innovative, high throughput stem cell technologies and novel drug discovery platforms to dissect the mechanisms leading to differentiation of stem cells, the master cells responsible for tissue development and repair. Plasticell’s research focus is to discover regenerative small molecule drugs. The company also forms industry alliances by partnering its Combinatorial Cell Culture™ technology for high throughput stem cell differentiation to derive cell lines and reagents for research and therapy applications. For more information please visit the company’s website: www.plasticell.co.uk
About King’s College London
King’s College London is one of the oldest and largest colleges of the University of London. In 2002, King’s researchers based at Guy’s Hospital were one of the first two groups to be granted a license by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to generate hES cells, and were the first to successfully generate an hESC line in the UK.