SAN DIEGO, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Fate Therapeutics, Inc. received a Notice of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for U.S. Patent Application Number 10/997,146 entitled “Methods for Reprogramming Somatic Cells.” Upon issuance, the patent will cover foundational induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology for identifying agents that enable the reprogramming of human somatic cells, including pluripotency genes, small molecules and biologics. The invention by Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D., founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and scientific founder of Fate Therapeutics, has a priority date of November 26, 2003 and is believed to be the earliest art that describes broad methods and key agents to reprogram human somatic cells to a pluripotent state. Fate Therapeutics holds an exclusive license to the application in commercial fields, including for drug discovery and therapeutic purposes.
The Notice of Allowance represents the earliest allowed claims in the U.S. for iPSC technology. In this 2003 application (20080280362), Dr. Jaenisch first describes the groundbreaking potential to generate human pluripotent cells from somatic cells without using embryos, oocytes and/or nuclear transfer technology and how reprogrammed somatic cells can enable autologous cell therapy, including the treatment, prevention or stabilization of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or ALS. In addition, the application covers compositions used in screening for agents to generate these pluripotent cells and further describes specific agents that can be used to reprogram human somatic cells, including certain genes, classes of small molecules and pluripotency proteins. Fate Therapeutics also holds an exclusive license to other inventions of Dr. Jaenisch relating to iPSC technology including PCT/US2008/004516 with a priority date of April 7, 2007, which describes the reprogramming of human somatic cells using one or more pluripotency factors, including Oct3/4, Sox2 and/or Klf4, and combinations thereof.
Because iPSCs have been shown to behave similarly to embryonic stem cells with the ability to differentiate into various cell types, such as cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, neurons and pancreatic cells, and can be created from any adult somatic cell, like a skin cell, iPSC technology has significant commercial and medical value. For example, iPSCs can be used to assess drug toxicity across diverse genetic backgrounds, enable the development of disease model systems for basic research and drug discovery and may ultimately result in personalized cell therapies. Fate Therapeutics is using iPSCs to recreate adult stem cell niche environments for the discovery of “stem cell modulator” compounds that act in vivo for therapeutic benefit.
About Fate Therapeutics, Inc.
Fate Therapeutics is interrogating adult stem cell biology and applying induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to develop Stem Cell Modulators (SCMs), small molecule or biologic compounds that guide cell fate for therapeutic purposes. The Company’s award-winning, proprietary iPSC technology platform incorporates the most advanced viral, small molecule and protein reprogramming methods, and offers a highly efficient, minimally invasive system to recapitulate human physiology for commercial-scale drug discovery and therapeutic use. The Company’s approach has broad therapeutic potential in areas such as regenerative medicine, hematological diseases, metastatic cancer, traumatic injury and degenerative diseases. Fate Therapeutics is currently conducting a Phase 1b clinical trial of FT1050, a small molecule SCM designed to increase hematopoietic stem cell number and function in dual umbilical cord blood transplant recipients with hematologic malignancies, such as leukemia and lymphoma. Fate Therapeutics is headquartered in San Diego, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.fatetherapeutics.com.
Fate Therapeutics, Inc.
