Superdonor squad

Now well on its way to its goal of banking cells from one million donors, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell provider Orig3n Inc. has started probing its repository for useful biomarkers. Last month, the company announced the collection contains cells from enough “superdonors” to supply 90% of the U.S. population material for allogeneic transplantation.

“Superdonors” are individuals whose cells can be used to treat wide swaths of the population with little risk of rejection by the immune system, and their discovery has opened up the possibility of creating allogeneic cell therapies that do not require co-administration of immunosuppressants. However, finding superdonors is challenging, as they are few and far between. ...