ACT's research on therapeutic cell types obtained from iPS cells featured in leading news media outlets

Feb 17 2010

Advanced Cell Technology or “ACT” (OTCBB: ACTC) announced today that its research involving therapeutic cell types obtained from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has been featured in several leading news media outlets: Scientific American, USA Today and Newsweek. The coverage highlights a recent paper in the journal Stem Cells co-authored by ACT lead by its Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Robert Lanza MD, and its collaborators. The paper reports that iPS cells exhibit abnormal expansion and early cellular aging, raising important questions about the future prospects for iPS cell-based therapies and supporting the use of ACT's embryo-safe single blastomere-derived human embryonic stem cell lines, which do not exhibit these problems.

“Cell-Off: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Fall Short of Potential Found in Embryonic Version”

The Scientific American article, "Cell-Off: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Fall Short of Potential Found in Embryonic Version" includes the following passage: "The act of reprogramming cells to make them as capable as ones from embryos apparently can result in aberrant cells that age and die abnormally, suggesting there is a long way to go to prove such cells are really like embryonic stem cells and can find use in therapies." The story is available at:>

The USA Today article is headlined, “Stem Cell Articles Show Early Aging Abnormalities.” In the story, Maria Blasco, of the Spanish National Cancer Center of Madrid, who was not part of the study, is quoted as saying, “the authors [of the article] show that induced stem cells are not of the same 'quality' as embryonic stem cells, and that induced-derived cell types tend to age and die earlier than those derived from embryonic stem cells.” It is available at: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/02/stem-cell-alternatives-show-early-aging-abnormalities/1

The Newsweek story, “Still No Truce in the Stem Cell Wars,” discusses the "bad news" heralded by ACT's study for theoretical uses for iPS cells with stem cells produced by adults. ACT’s technology platform uses embryonic stem cells. The article is available at: http://www.newsweek.com/id/233454.

“This study, published in Stem Cells, highlights the challenges often faced in attempting to translate promising science into clinical results,” said William M. Caldwell, IV, Chairman and CEO of Advanced Cell. “We are currently working on a solution to the problems raised by this research, and hope to be able to provide details shortly. We believe this study further validates the need to commercialize our blastomere technology, which is still on schedule to begin clinical trials in humans during the 2010 third quarter.”

ACT's collaborators on the study published in Stem Cells were McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine International (SCRMI), a joint venture between ACT and Korean biotech firm CHA.