21 Sep Madison's Stemina collaborates with California Stem Cell
Madison – Stemina Biomarker Discovery and California Stem Cell (CSC) collaborate to validate effectiveness of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte progenitors for use in predictive toxicology. They’ve concluded that the study using CSC’s 96-well CardioPlate containing high purity human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiomyocyte progenitor cells, has demonstrated that it can be used as a model system for investigating and predicting drug induced cardiotoxicity.
“Stemina’s expertise in the area of metabolomic analysis is unparalleled, making it an ideal partner for this study,” said Dr Chris Airriess, chief operating officer of CSC. “We are very excited about the possibilities for rapid, multivariate compound screening that this technology will enable.”
The CSC and Stemina collaboration formed as a way to develop a predictive assay to screen for cardiotoxicity, using a variety of anti-cancer drugs with different and distinct mechanisms of action on human cardiac tissue that are known to induce cardiotoxicity and potentially cardiomyopathy.
Gabriela Cezar, chief scientific officer of Stemina, said: “The resulting cytotoxic profiles suggest that CSC’s cardiomyocyte progenitor cells closely mimic those of the human heart, making this plate-based system an ideal in vitro model of cardiotoxic effects in vivo.”
California Stem Cell (CSC) is a privately held company focused on the manufacturing of high-purity human cells for therapeutic development and clinical application. CSC is currently in the pre-clinical development stage of stem cell based therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), spinal cord injury (SCI) and coronary heart disease.
Stemina is a Madison, Wisconsin-based metabolomics company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of molecular biomarkers to improve drug safety and human health. The firm’s cell-based assays study the response of hESCs and hESC-derived cells, such as heart cells and neurons, to drugs or disease conditions.