Date: Mar 01, 2013 Author: press release Source: Company Data (
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Mandala Biosciences, LLC and its collaborators at BioTime Inc. (Nasdaq:BTX) and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Institute have reported the identification of targeting peptides that recognize specific types of human stem cells. The targeted cells known as "progenitors" are useful precursor cells for regenerative medicine because of their ability to become specific kinds of mature cell types that make up adult tissues such as muscle, lung, liver, intestine and pancreas. The stem cell targeting peptides were used to label certain progenitor cells with fluorescent nanoparticles known as quantum dots. Quantum dots do not normally enter cells, but when they are attached to targeting agents they rapidly accumulate inside the target cells, resulting in a very intense signal. These cell targeted quantum dots are highly efficient cell labeling reagents and have the potential to greatly streamline the production and purification of stem cells used in regenerative medicine to replace cells lost to injury or disease. The research titled "Identification of Human Embryonic Progenitor Cell Targeting Peptides Using Phage Display," was published in the March 4th issue of PLOS ONE.
"It helps to start with the purest cell lines possible to find cell targeting reagents," said David Larocca, Ph.D., senior author of the article; "So we used PureStem™ Cells from BioTime, which are "clonally pure" having been expanded from a single cell. This greatly simplified our screening efforts." The new stem cell targeting reagents have potential applications in regenerative medicine for stem cell tracking, stem cell manufacturing, and stem cell validation assays. Authors on the scientific publication included Paola A. Bignone, Rachel A. Krupa, and David Larocca of Mandala Biosciences, Evan Y. Snyder of the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and Hal Sternberg, Walter D. Funk, and Michael D. West of BioTime. The work was funded in part by an Early Translational Grant A
