Barely two weeks after the UK Patent Office granted an iPSC patent to Ipierian, a patent application by Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute,- entitled "Methods for Reprogramming Somatic Cells"-, has become the subject of a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent & Trademark Office.  According to a Press Release from Fate Therapeutics, Inc, "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".  To view the Jaenisch patent application, click here.

EESCN warmly congratulates two leading stem cell researchers based at Cambridge's Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research on their recent awards.  Professor Austin Smith has been awarded the prestigious 2010 Louis-Jeantet Foundation Prize for Medicine; Dr Jennifer Nichols and her team have won the 2009 NC3Rs prize.

Professor Smith's award is, in the words of the Foundation,  to "a biologist whose fundamental research will have important repercussions in the field of medicine...for his seminal contribution to understanding the mechanisms governing the renewal or differentiation of stem cells, a vital stage in the development of cell treatment."

Dr Nichols' team was awarded the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research prize for a publication in Nature Medicine "which describes a new method of priming early embryos to form embryonic stem (ES) cells that could dramatically reduce the number of animals used to study the genetic basis of type 1 diabetes and also has the potential to do the same for mouse models of other diseases."

EESCN Director, Julian Hitchcock comments, "this fantastic news provides proof, as if proof were needed, of the huge fund of stem cell and regenerative medicine talent coming out of the Cambridge region and of its potential translation into clinical and commercial value."  EESCN is working hard to foster such developments, albeit with limited means.