This research program involves development of therapies based on the use of genetically identical pluripotent stem cells generated by our cellular reprogramming technologies. These technologies can be used to generate patient-specific pluripotent cells and tissues for transplantation. We believe our technology platform will enable the transformation of a patient’s cell into pluripotent ES cells that are histocompatible with the patient and have the potential to be differentiated into any of the over 200 different human cell types that may be therapeutically relevant in treating diseased or destroyed tissues in human patients. We expect that our cellular reprogramming technologies will offer a new avenue for the introduction of targeted genetic modifications in cells and for the regeneration of cell lifespan, thereby making youthful cells available for aging patients. The combination of these advances, the ability to produce young cells of certain kinds that are histocompatible with the patient, is a core potential application of our technology. We believe these cellular reprogramming technologies will be effective therapies where there is time to prepare customized therapy through reprogramming of the patient’s own cells.
Some of the technologies that support our Cellular Reprogramming are somatic cell nuclear transfer and chromatin transfer and fusion technologies.
Somatic cell nuclear transfer, referred to as SCNT, refers to the process wherein a body cell is transferred to an egg cell from which the nuclear DNA has been removed. This results in the body cell being “reprogrammed” by the egg cell. This reprogramming transforms the cell from the type of cell it was, for instance a skin cell, into an embryonic cell with the power to become any cell type in the body. A related technology is called chromatin transfer. Through this technology, the DNA and attached proteins, or chromatin, of the somatic cell is reprogrammed prior to transfer into an egg cell. Chromatin transfer has the potential to improve the efficiencies and therefore reduce the cost of nuclear transfer. We believe that one critical advantage of our proprietary SCNT and chromatin transfer technologies is that the cells are “rejuvenated” by returning the cell to a youthful state. This is important because these youthful cells will have the proliferative capacity of young cells. These healthy replacement cells, which would be genetically identical to the patient’s own cells, would then be used for cell transplantation.
Our fusion technologies involve the fusion of the cytoplasm of one cell into another. In the same manner that the cytoplasm of an egg cell is capable of transforming any cell back to an embryonic state, the fusion of the cytoplasm of other cell types, including differentiated cell types (such as blood cells) is capable of reprogramming another cell type (such as a skin cell). These technologies have the potential of transforming a cell from a patient into another medically-useful cell type also identical to the patient. They also have the potential to fuse the cytoplasm of undifferentiated cells, such as embryonic stem cells, with somatic cells to transport the somatic cell DNA back to pluripotency. We believe that the fusion technology we are developing can be developed into as broad and powerful a technique as SCNT, producing histocompatible, youthful stem cells that are multi and potentially even pluripotent. If successfully developed, this technology may also provide a pathway that does not utilize human egg cells which would reduce the cost of the procedure, increase the number of patients that could benefit from its implementation and bypass many of the ethical issues associated with technologies based upon or using eggs and embryos, because it does not require the creation or destruction of embryos.