Primorigen Biosciences LLC SBIR Project Abstract Primorigen will use SBIR funds to develop and validate a microcarrier-based cell culture system for selection, scale-up and feeder-free mass production of iPS cells, based on Primorigen's proprietary pluripotent stem cell attachment factor (StemCadhere"""""""") for direct physical selection and propagation of iPSC. Phase I studies will define coupling chemistry that optimizes E-cadherin mediated cell adhesion to StemCadhere""""""""-coated microcarriers, analyze iPSC attachment efficiency and propagation on the StemCadhere""""""""-coated microcarriers, analyze the utility of StemCadhere-coated microcarriers for direct physical selection of newly induced iPS cells, and compare performance of cryopreserved iPSC on StemCadhere""""""""-coated microcarriers with Matrigel-coated microcarriers. This work will provide the foundation for Phase II studies, which will investigate production of differentiated cells directly on the microcarriers. Similar methods will be used to test and select cellular adhesion molecules specific for each germ layer (ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm), and for a limited number of terminally differentiated lineages such as hepatocytes, cardiomyocytes, and hematopoietic cells. The initial commercialized products will be a) ready-to-use (cryopreserved) iPS cells attached to the microcarriers, ready for addition of differentiation factors and downstream protocols;and b) a new application for attachment factors coupled to microcarriers that Primorigen can market at large to pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms engaged in differentiated cell production from iPS.
Primorigen Biosciences LLC SBIR Project Narrative Current methods for production of iPS cells require labor intensive manual culturing steps, frequent feeding of cultures, and inclusion of drug-selectable resistance markers to achieve purification of iPS from non-induced parental cells (such as foreskin fibroblasts). To fulfill the promise of iPS cells as a source for cellular therapies and differentiated cells for pharmaceutical development, it is mandatory to avoid the use of lentiviral vectors and other agents capable of genomic integration, which precludes the use of integrated drug-resistance markers for iPS selection. In addition, to decrease variability in production lots, it is desirable to automate as much of the culture as possible, while maintaining the proliferation and pluripotency of the iPS cells. Primorigen's SBIR proposal will address this need by developing a comprehensive, integrated solution for selection and mass production of iPS cells by taking advantage of Primorigen's proprietary stem cell attachment factor for feeder-free propagation of iPS cells in microcarrier suspension culture.
