BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

iPS cells: Five years later

May 26, 2011 7:00 AM UTC

Despite the proliferation of technologies to derive induced pluripotent stem cells since they were first described five years ago, this has been a technology in search of a home. The tide may have finally turned. In March, Cellular Dynamics International Inc.saiditsinduced pluripotent stem cell-derived product-iCell Cardiomyocytes-will be added to the drug development toolbox at Roche.

Other pharmas are also exploring applications of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-derived systems for R&D, but broad adoption has not occurred due to a dearth of data validating their utility in most drug discovery, drug screening and disease modeling settings. Showing their utility as a basis for therapeutics is even further away...