Friday, September 21, 2007

Science discusses Trounson appointment as head of CIRM

The journal Science discusses the appointment of Trounson as head of CIRM in the September 21 issue, 317 Science 1667.

See also
http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/09/trounson-named-prez-of-cirm-what-you.html

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Separately, for those interested, Trounson is a named inventor on US 6,875,607, which is based on application 09/436,164, filed 9 Nov. 1999. The patent is assigned to ES Cell International Pte Ltd. The '607 patent does cite to

US 5843780 issued December 1998 to Thomson

Bongso is also a named inventor on the '607 patent. The FIRST named inventor on the '607 patent is Benjamin Eithan Reubinoff.

Claim 1 of the '607 states:

A method of modulating the differentiation of undifferentiated, pluripotent human embryonic stem (hES) cell in culture, comprising providing a fibroblast feeder layer which has been selected based on its ability to induce differentiation of undifferentiated, pluripotent human embryonic stem (hES) cells in culture, and growing said undifferentiated, pluripotent human embryonic stem (hES) cells on said fibroblast feeder layer, wherein said fibroblast feeder layer modulates the differentiation of said undifferentiated, pluripotent human embryonic stem (hES) cell in culture.

The '607 includes the following text:

James Thomson and coworkers (1998) derived ES cells from surplus blastocysts donated by couples undergoing treatment for infertility. The methodology used was not very different from that used 17 years earlier to derive mouse ES stem cells: the trophectoderm, thought to be inhibitory to ES cell establishment, was removed by immunosurgery, the inner cell mass was plated on to a mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder cell layer, and following a brief period of attachment and expansion, the resulting outgrowth was disaggregated and replated onto another feeder cell layer. There were no significant departures from mouse ES protocols in the media or other aspects of the culture system and a relatively high success rate was achieved. The phenotype of the cells was similar to that outlined above in the human EC studies of Pera et al.

To date, no US patent has cited the '607 patent.

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Separately, in a discussion of a study by Benjamin E. Reubinoff, M.D. PhD., Principal Investigator, Hadassah Medical Organization, one finds the statement:

It has been proposed that the essential characteristics of primate ES cells should include (i) derivation from the preimplantation or periimplantation embryo, (ii) prolonged undifferentiated proliferation, and (iii) stable developmental potential to form derivatives of all three embryonic germ layers even after prolonged culture (Thomson, 1996). We have derived stem cell lines from early human embryos that meet these criteria (Reubinoff et al., 2000). Our group was second in the world to derive hESC lines, and the first to show their potential to undergo somatic differentiation in vitro (Reubinoff et al., 2000).

To exploit the remarkable potential of hESCs, improvement of currently used methods for culturing and manipulating the cells as well as controlling their differentiation are required. In this context, we have developed novel approaches to cryopreserve (Reubinoff et al., 2001), to genetically modify (Gropp et al., 2003; Ben-Dor et al., 2006) and to control the differentiation of hESCs cells (Reubinoff et al., 2001, Itsykson et al., 2005).

Human ES cell lines are derived from embryos produced by in vitro fertilization (IVF) for clinical purposes. Surplus frozen embryos that are no longer required for infertility treatment are recruited for this purpose after donor informed consent and institutional/national review board approvals are obtained. The embryos are thawed and cultured to the blastocyst stage (5-6 days), the inner cell mass (ICM) comprised of pluripotent cells is isolated, and the stem cells are most commonly cultured on mouse embryonic fibroblast feeder cell layer. The feeder layer is required to prevent differentiation and to promote the proliferation of the stem cells.


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Of infertility clinics in Britain, note:

This clinic moved to the Mile End area of London before being closed down by the HFEA in the early 1990s. Dr. Jack Glatt, who ran the clinic is now known as Jack Gilliat. Please list as much identifying information as possible, as donor numbers may not be enough. Also, visit http://www.ukdonorlink.org.uk/

***On Reubinoff at UCSB:

US companies using existing stem cell lines include BioTransplant, Aastrom Biosciences
(Nasdaq:ASTM), StemCells Inc. (Nasdaq:STEM), OrganoGenesis (AMEX:ORG) and Nexell Therapeutics
(Nasdaq:NEXL).

Hadasit Medical Research Services and Development promotes and markets the intellectual property
generated by the Hadassah Medical Organization. Israeli start-up Embryonic Stem Cell International
(ESI) was founded in July 2001, just before the official NIH policy directive on stem cell research. ESI
developed out of research by Dr. Reubinoff, and three colleagues from Australia, the Netherlands and
Singapore. The researchers developed a technique to develop embryonic stem cells from surplus
embryos, “in order not to waste them”. ESI’s discovery earned it a $10 million investment, at a $20
million company value, from Life Science Investments of Singapore and ES Cell Australia Pty Ltd. ESI’s
first market is a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, and the company is trying to develop stem cells for
the pancreas and heart. ESI has signed a development agreement with Quark Biotech (QBI) to use
QBI’s proprietary technology platform to discover new genes such as growth and cell differentiation
factors derived from embryonic stem cells.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

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9:39 AM  

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