09 Jan California company licenses stem cell technology from WARF
Madison, Wis. – The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation has announced the signing of a licensing agreement BioTime, a California life sciences company, involving 173 patents and patent applications related to human embryonic stem cell technology.
BioTime develops blood plasma volume expanders and has recently entered the field of regenerative medicine through its wholly owned subsidiary, Embryome Sciences, Inc. Through its affiliation with Embryome Sciences, BioTime plans to develop new medical and research products using embryonic stem cell technology created by professor James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Thomson is the researcher who first successfully isolated human embryonic stem cells.
According to BioTime chief executive Michael West, the WARF patents will allow his company to manufacture and commercialize human embryonic stem cell-derived cell types and related products for scientists to use in research and in drug discovery. As part of that effort, Embryome Sciences plans to develop and commercialize a collection of research tools for stem cell research.
The tools would enable researchers to identify, scale-up, and purify many cell types that emerge from human embryonic stem cells.
BioTime, headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., plans to launch three kinds of Embryonics research products in the next two years.
West, the founder of Geron Corp., provided early support for Thomson’s stem cell work. Geron eventually became WARF’s first commercial licensee of stem cell technology.
With the latest agreement, WARF has completed 23 licensing agreements for stem cell technologies with 17 companies. WARF is the private, non-profit patenting and licensing arm of UW-Madison.
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