Axxam S.p.A. (Milan/Italy), a privately-owned innovative Partner Research Organization (iPRO), has entered into a non-exclusive license agreement with iPS Academia Japan, Inc. (“AJ”) which was formed to facilitate the application of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technologies of Kyoto University. The license agreement allows Axxam to provide state of the art discovery services using human iPSCs and iPSC-derived cells to its clients.
Human iPSCs and iPSC-derived differentiated cells will be used as an extremely relevant cellular background for the development of highly-customized in-vitro assays for relevant target classes and molecular pathways in screening projects to identify new hits and leads in the early phases of the drug discovery process, as well as to assess and validate relevant targets. The use of human iPSC-derived differentiated cells is of increasing importance especially in drug discovery projects for CNS diseases where the use of human primary cells is not possible or extremely limited.
Each iPSC based project will be outlined based on the client’s specific needs to identify the most suitable approach in order to obtain the best results and accelerate research. Thanks to the expertise of all the different units at Axxam, complex biological conditions are studied from different angles using several approaches including high content and imaging based analysis, functional tests, electrophysiology, optogenetics, gene silencing, TaqManTM-based gene expression analysis, calcium oscillation analysis and more, while genome editing techniques can generate specific mutations involved in the pathogenesis of the disease of interest or introduce specific genetically encoded reporter systems into the cells.
“Axxam’s continuous mission is to support our clients and partners tackling the most challenging diseases that are affecting humanity” said Stefan Lohmer, CEO of Axxam. "The combination of most innovative approaches to develop in-vitro assays with the possibility to work on more relevant models of human diseases based on iPSCs will make the difference against neuronal and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, but also on cardiac diseases, inflammation, fibrotic diseases, retinal diseases, pain disorders and many others”.
Financial details of the agreement are not disclosed.
For more information: www.axxam.com