Indiana University Research and Technology Corp. has licensed cells developed at the Indiana University School of Medicine. to Applied Biological Materials Inc., based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.
Academic, clinical and industrial researchers who study therapies to prevent or treat cancer, autoimmune diseases, blood diseases and metabolic disease can use the myeloid-derived cells to conduct experiments, including pharmacological drug screens. Applied Biological Materials will commercialize the cells by establishing license agreements with researchers, who can then purchase the cells online.
The cell were developed by Hong Du and Cong Yan, professors in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the IU School of Medicine. Yan said the cells could be a more economical and reliable method to study immunotherapy, or therapies that include substances that stimulate an immune response.
“Often, it can be very expensive — and sometimes impossible — to use animal models or human specimens to study these diseases,” Yan said. “Since both cell lines are myeloid-derived cells, they are great tools to solve these problems in an economical way. They are reliable and easy to maneuver.”
Du said researchers can screen drug candidates in the cells prior to preclinical animal studies and clinical trials.
“Using these cell lines, researchers can avoid repeatedly isolating primary myeloid cells from animals,” she said. “These cell lines are easily manipulated for DNA and siRNA transfection, receptor mediated endocytosis, and inhibitor treatment.”
More information about the licensing agreement is available here.
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