Company has identified “super donors” to accelerate matching and advance the future of regenerative medicine
SAN FRANCISCO—Nov. 21, 2016—Today, at the World Alliance Forum in San Francisco, ORIG3N, a leader in regenerative medicine technology, announced that it has achieved a significant milestone in cell therapy and regenerative medicine: It has identified Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) compatible matches within its LifeCapsule bank for 90 percent of the U.S. population.
HLA is a protein found on most cells of your body—it’s how your body recognizes what is you versus what is not you. HLA “super donors” are individuals with tissues that are immunologically compatible with large sets of the human population.
The implications of this announcement include:
• For the first time in human history, a complete set of matched samples has been identified and can be industrially produced.
• Utilizing induced pluripotent stem cell technology, any tissue can be generated from these cells, and they can be an exact allogeneic match to the individuals requiring them.
• In the near future, people will not need to wait months for an exact match for a transplant, as tissues can be pre-produced.
• ORIG3N’s high-resolution matching process was performed utilizing nine sites, which leads to much closer matches.
This achievement is only possible because ORIG3N has built the world’s largest crowdsourced cell repository called LifeCapsule, which is essentially a snapshot of humanity created by storing crowdsourced blood samples from diverse populations.
“All applications of regenerative medicine require access to tissues that can be matched, and now that we have identified those cell lines, we are on the brink of enabling the future of medicine,” said Robin Y. Smith, co-founder and CEO of ORIG3N. “We’ve invested heavily in building this bank, and we envision it being used as a resource for the greater good, both in the United States and around the globe.”
“Since the U.S. is such a wonderful melting pot, we’ve received samples that can be used to match and serve its population, as well as large numbers of people in other countries,” continued Smith. “The dream of a fully matched bank was thought to be four to five years away, but by combining LifeCapsule with high throughput technology and a great partnership, we were able to be the first to achieve this milestone.”
ORIG3N has partnered with LabCorp to help analyze the samples. The company is exploring next steps for a clinical program early next year.
About ORIG3N, Inc.
ORIG3N is advancing the future of medicine through genetics and regenerative medicine research. The company is doing so by engaging directly with consumers and giving consumers the opportunity to understand their genetic makeup while building the world’s largest crowdsourced library of blood samples to support induced pluripotent stem cell research. The cell repository, called LifeCapsule, is used to better understand the cellular and molecular foundations of genetically inherited disease. Thousands of people have already contributed to advancing the future of medicine and human genome research. The founders are serial entrepreneurs and life science veterans whose previous venture, ArtusLabs, was acquired by PerkinElmer in 2011.
