Protocols for Growing Embryonic Stem Cells

(Menlo Park, CA, USA; www.geron.com).

Geron scientists have developed a method for expanding populations of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) without the use of mouse feeder cells, addressing concerns about contamination by mouse cells. Also, feeder-free conditions allow the scalable production of large quantities of hESCs in standard bioreactors. This kind of production is not possible when growing discrete colonies of hESCs attached to irradiated mouse feeder cells, say the scientists.

Geron has used the protocol successfully with multiple hESC lines derived by collaborators at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA) and the University of California, San Francisco (USA). The company is developing cell therapies, using cells differentiated from hESCs, for Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, heart failure, and diabetes. Geron will grant licenses for research under its feeder-free pending patent without cost to academic and government scientists doing work in the field.

"We are publishing the protocols on our website to enable and encourage other researchers to benefit from our work,” explained Thomas B. Okarma, Ph.D., M.D., president and CEO of Geron. "The field of hESC research has tremendous promise, and we want it to progress rapidly. In addition to our own R&D, we want to facilitate hESC research broadly in the scientific community.”



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