Companies will incorporate cells and technology to create a ‘clinical trial in a dish’

Axol Bioscience – a stem cell technology provider – has reached an agreement with StrataStem to access and commercialise its collection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patient samples.

Under the terms, Axol will reprogramme the samples into ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ (iPSCs) that can subsequently be separated into an extensive range of brain cells. These include neurons and neuroinflammatory cells.

Formed in vitro, the cells can provide patient-specific human brain models from a cohort of AD patients, ultimately creating a ‘clinical trial in a dish’.

The research concentrates on sporadic AD (sAD) – the most prevalent form of the disease, accounting for over 95% of all cases. sAD has no specific family link and is triggered by a combination of genetics, the environment and an individual’s lifestyle.

Meanwhile, StrataStem’s collection of donor materials, including blood samples and fibroblasts, has been obtained from consenting sAD patients and healthy donors.

Through the creation of iPSCs and differentiated brain cells from the large-scale Alzheimer’s cohort, Axol intends to enable patient stratification prior to clinical trials for AD treatments. This will allow drug discovery companies to select the most responsive patients for trial.

Chris Ward, chief scientific officer and co-founder at StrataStem, reflected: “We are delighted to be entering this collaboration with the team at Axol. The recent US Federal Food and Drug Administration Agency Modernization Act 2.0 has paved the way for the use of cell-based assays to investigate drug safety and efficacy, including this innovative ‘clinical trial in a dish’ approach.”

He added: “We are indebted to the patients who continue to support us in advancing our understanding of AD towards the development of more effective treatments. Our collaboration with Axol will massively accelerate this process and enable researchers to better understand how and why the disease develops, help improve the accuracy of diagnosis and will undoubtedly identify new therapeutics for the treatment of the disease.”

Liam Taylor, chief executive officer at Axol Bioscience, concluded: “Here at Axol, we are committed to using iPSCs to make better in vitro models of human disease, expanding our understanding and de-risk drug development. This exclusive agreement with StrataStem is a major strategic move for Axol, bringing us to the forefront of AD drug discovery and development.

“Patient stratification at the preclinical stage of drug development is an exciting concept, and we are proud to be among the first to actively source panels of patient samples with comprehensive longitudinal data to do this.”

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