Scéil™: a new offering for the general public to turn adult cells into stem cells and store them

Paris, July 8, 2013 – The Cellectis Group (Alternext: ALCLS) announced today that it is launching Scéil™, an offering for the general public that involves storing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) generated from a skin sample so that people can benefit, if needed, from future regenerative medicine treatments as soon as they become available.

Cellectis is a biotechnology industry group with 13 years’ experience in genome engineering and stem cells. It has a strong background in handling induced pluripotent stem cells on a large scale up through their maturation and differentiation into functional cell types.

The Group has developed wide‑reaching projects based on iPS cells, including the iPS Engineering Hub, a service that helps match new drugs to patient needs. Regenerative medicine is another area of development for the Group. One ongoing project, in partnership with worldwide diabetes market leader Novo Nordisk, is focused on developing a treatment for type 1 diabetes using engineered stem cells. Cellectis has also been working since 2010 with the CiRA laboratory, run by Pr Shinya Yamanaka, winner of the 2012 Nobel prize in medicine for his work on induced pluripotent stem cells.  

Scéil™ is part of the Group’s strategic focus on therapeutics. While not itself a therapeutics solution, Scéil™ naturally complements the Group’s offering in this area.

Scéil™ will initially be marketed by a new wholly owned subsidiary of Cellectis SA, Scéil Private Limited, in Singapore. Another Scéil subsidiary is being set up in Dubai. These locations accord with existing national laws and regulatory frameworks.

In a meeting with US press at which Scéil™ was unveiled, André Choulika announced, “We are proud to be the first in the world to make the major scientific breakthrough of iPS cell technology available to the public. Scéil™ represents a real economic opportunity, one of the many steps forward to come in regenerative medicine.”