Cellartis is partner in InnovaLiv, a major multinational regenerative medicine project funded by the European Commission

January 10th, 2012, Gothenburg, Sweden - Cellartis AB, part of Cellectis stem cells.

January 10th, 2012, Gothenburg, Sweden - Cellartis AB, part of Cellectis stem cells.

The general scientific objectives of the InnovaLiv project are to « develop scale-up procedures for human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and to produce GMP-grade tissue culture reagents that will facilitate large-scale differentiation of hESC to hepatocytes ». InnovaLiv aims to provide the EU healthcare system with a renewable and reliable source of functional clinical-grade hepatocytes generated from hESC lines. Rigorous standards to ensure the safety and quality of these cells will be developed. The GMP-compliant hepatocytes will be prepared as a prototype therapy aiming at treating one patient on the basis of a compasive use protocol. Commercialisation of the novel GMP-grade stem cell derived hepatocytes will be performed by Cellartis AB, a Cellectis Stem Cells company, that will assume a leading role in InnovaLiv.

Transplantation of donor hepatocytes has become an alternative to liver transplantation for the treatment of liver diseases. However, in addition to the complication imposed by severe shortage of donor livers, adult hepatocytes cannot be expanded in vitro. Therefore, there is a critical need to explore the potential of human stem cells, such as hESC, to generate sufficient quantities of functional human hepatocytes. However, the production of safe and functional human hepatocytes from hESC under GMP conditions for clinical applications remains to be achieved.