NYSCF, CBR collaborate to customize creation of high-quality stem cell lines

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) and Cbr Systems, Inc. DBA Cord Blood Registry® (CBR®) today announced a collaboration to customize the creation of high-quality stem cell lines. NYSCF will create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines from umbilical cord tissue collected after birth from healthy newborns provided by CBR. The partnership will combine NYSCF's research and technology power with CBR's expertise in newborn stem cell banking for potential future treatments for patients and their families.

"Umbilical cord tissue is a largely untapped source of rich cells to be used in medical research and cell therapies," NYSCF CEO and Co-founder Susan L. Solomon stressed. "This collaboration between our organizations will create a unique partnership to advance both of our missions and realize the potential of patient-specific care."

NYSCF will employ its proprietary robotic technology, The NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM, to efficiently and consistently create the pluripotent stem cells central to this partnership. NYSCF's team of scientists will receive the material from CBR and identify a subset of samples for reprogramming to generate iPS cells, which have the ability to mature into any type of cell in a person's body. NYSCF will then characterize the resulting stem cells, ensure quality, and cryopreserve the cells for research and future use.

"We are excited by the efforts of NYSCF to further improve reprogramming technologies for induced pluripotent stem cells. The novel, high throughput, automated platforms developed by NYSCF will help increase patient-specific research approaches and advance personalized medicine in the clinical setting," commented Geoffrey Crouse, President of Cord Blood Registry and Executive Vice President of AMAG Pharmaceuticals.

NYSCF remains the only organization to have a major robotic platform to efficiently produce stem cells with significantly reduced variability between resulting cell lines. The project allows NYSCF to further streamline protocols for using a variety of cell types to generate iPS cells in a massively parallel fashion.

"This research will evaluate the generation of iPS cells from umbilical cord tissue processed and cryopreserved by CBR using the innovative technology platforms developed at NYSCF. From the scientific perspective, the continued advancement of technologies will be an important factor driving the use of iPS cells in personalized medicine" stated Kate Brown, PhD, Principal Scientist at Cord Blood Registry."

The stem cell lines generated from this innovative undertaking will be saved for use in biomedical research and may be used to better understand human biology.

"Because the Array reduces variability between resulting iPS cell lines, genetic differences between cells are more readily detected," Dr. Scott Noggle, NYSCF Vice President of Stem Cell Research, explained. "Creating iPS cells from cord tissue may be a powerful tool for biobanking with future therapies in mind, and may also help us glean critical insights into human disease and cures now."

CBR's capacity to collect and biobank umbilical cord tissue combined with NYSCF's power to push innovative stem cell research may enable this partnership to anticipate necessary technology and infrastructure for regenerative medicine applications. Through this collaboration, NYSCF and CBR will work together to advance biomedical research with the goal of realizing the power of precision medicine.