Cellular Engineering Technologies, Inc. (CET), a biotechnology company located in Coralville, Iowa, announces that it has received a Phase 2 SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop commercially safer and more reproducible pluripotent stem cells. CET, which was co-founded by Dr. Alan Moy and Anant Kamath, received official notice that their grant entitled “Improving the Reproducibility and Genetic Stability of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) and Differentiated Cells Through Oncogene-Free Reprogramming and Fully Human Growth Factors,” was funded this month. Dr. Alan Moy, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, is the Principal Investigator of the grant. iPSC are pluripotent stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of specialized cells, thereby advancing a technology that could help deliver personalized medicine and improve regenerative medicine and drug discovery. A major historic challenge in iPSC manufacturing has been trying to develop a reproducible, safer and cost-effective method to produce iPSC with improved genetic stability during large-scale cell manufacturing. A key cause of genetic instability in iPSC production has been the routine use of viruses and cancer-causing genes. CET’s proprietary technology creates iPSC without the need for cancer-causing genes and viruses, which will reduce the neoplastic and infectious risk of future pluripotent stem cell therapy. The technology was previously documented for a variety of different types of cells in the journals Future Science Open Access and Regenerative Medicine. The SBIR grant will allow CET to focus on developing quality controls in large-scale iPSC manufacturing and their subsequent differentiation into neural stem cells. These unique iPSC will initially be offered to the research market and will ultimately be utilized by therapeutic manufacturers for clinical conditions that include neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, cardio-pulmonary disease and cancer. The grant also provides a subcontract to the John Paul II Medical Research Institute (JP2MRI), a non-profit research organization located in Coralville, Iowa, to assist in important clinical research.

About Cellular Engineering Technologies (CET): CET is a biopharmaceutical company located in Coralville, IA that manufactures human stem cells and proteins for academia, industry and government research organizations.

About John Paul II Medical Research Institute (JP2MRI): JP2MRI is a non-profit medical research organization whose mission is to conduct adult stem cell research for its therapeutic priorities, which include: 1) Neurodegenerative Diseases; 2) Rare Diseases; 3) Cancer; and 4) Chronic Diseases that are unmet and underperformed by the biopharmaceutical industry. The Institute conducts medical research consistent within the Catholic healthcare guidelines.