Kyoto University, iZumi Bio collaborate on pluripotent stem cell technology

Kyoto University and iZumi Bio Inc. said they are collaborating to promote research, development and application of induced pluripotent stem cell technology -- a form of cellular reprogramming which originated in Japan -- with the goal of advancing drug discovery and enabling cell-based therapies.

South San Francisco-based iZumi Bio, a privately held company, is backed by firms that include Menlo Park's Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. Kleiner Perkins partner and former U.S. vice president Al Gore said stem cell research "holds great promise for the creation of new therapies that could revolutionize the treatment of disorders such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes and muscular dystrophy. The discovery that iPS cell technology brings, that 'stem cell-like' cells can be generated from a small amount of human skin rather than from embryos, opens a new door for stem cell research and its application to therapeutic discovery."

Through the collaboration, iZumi and Kyoto University will exchange part of their representative human iPS cell lines. The two organizations also will conduct comparison and characterization studies independently but will share their results to determine which methods produce the most appropriate iPS cell lines for drug screening and development, and those most suitable for cell-based therapy.