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news.US-based biopharmaceutical firm Fate Therapeutics has announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has issued Patent No. 8,691,573 entitled 'Stem Cell Cultures.'
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The newly issued patent claims a class of small molecule inhibitors of Rho-associated kinase (ROCK) that are important to the therapeutic application of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).
Modulators belonging to the patented class have been demonstrated to be necessary for the high-throughput derivation of transgene-free hiPSCs, and for the maintenance, survival and genomic stability of hiPSCs in culture.
Fate holds an exclusive license from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) to the patent in all commercial fields.
Fate Therapeutics chief operating and financial officer Scott Wolchko said the company believes the class of ROCK inhibitors covered by these issued claims is a key component to enable the clinical manufacture of hiPSCs for therapeutic applications.
"These newly issued claims complement the hiPSC-related cell compositions previously patented under our Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research intellectual property portfolio, which we believe are foundational to hiPSC generation," Wolchko said.
"Our growing patent estate covering small molecule-enhanced reprogramming and pluripotency maintenance and expansion is a reflection of the breadth of our proprietary platform for developing iPSC-based regenerative therapeutics."
Thiazovivin, one specific ROCK inhibitor covered within the patented class, was first discovered by Fate Therapeutics scientific founder Sheng Ding.
As part of the research collaboration between TSRI and Fate Therapeutics, Ding and his team first showed that Thiazovivin, in combination with other small molecules, increases the reprogramming efficiency of human fibroblasts into hiPSCs by 200-fold as compared to non-chemically enhanced methods of hiPSC generation.
Additional work carried out by both Dr. Ding and Fate Therapeutics further differentiated the ability of Thiazovivin and its related class of molecules, compared to other ROCK inhibitors, improve hiPSC survival and homogeneity.