This patent will extend VistaGen’s intellectual property portfolio for pluripotent stem cell culture systems that produce human cells of the endoderm lineage, including liver, lung, pancreas, parathyroid and thyroid cells.
When issued, the new patent will complement US Patent Nos. 7,763,466, 8,512,957 and 8,143,009, each licensed exclusively by VistaGen from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
VistaGen president and chief scientific officer Dr Ralph Snodgrass said: "In addition to expanding the scope of our drug rescue opportunities, this patent allowance and our world-class differentiation expertise put VistaGen in a unique position to pursue potential stem cell research collaborations related to liver biology and drug metabolism assays, as well as pancreatic beta-islet cells for drug and regenerative cell therapy for diabetes."