The patent awards Cellular Engineering Technologies the intellectual property to develop, manufacture and commercialize induced pluripotent stem cells that are virus-free and carry a much lower cancer risk

March 8, 2022

Coralville, Iowa: Cellular Engineering Technologies (CET), Inc., an Iowa biotechnology company specializing in cell manufacturing and contract research services, today announced that it has received a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its virus-free and oncogene-free induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. The iPSC technology which was previously published in Future Science Open Access and Regenerative Medicine was developed in collaboration with the John Paul II Medical Research Institute (JP2MRI), a non-profit organization. More recently, the National Institutes of Health awarded CET a SBIR grant to commercialize the technology to provide reproducible iPSC and differentiated neural stem cells that maintain pluripotency and genetic stability during large scale production.

The patent provides a new benchmark in pluripotent stem cell safety. Pluripotent stem cells carry an inherent neoplastic risk. Moreover, the industry desire to produce off-the-shelf allogeneic iPSC therapies that are immune-tolerant has the potential for inducing further harm by evading the patient's innate immune system from unwanted immune-tolerant allogeneic neoplastic cells in a cell therapy. Thus, CET's patent can realize the full potential of pluripotent stem cells as therapeutic products by reducing the inherent viral and neoplastic risk. This issued patent further strengthens CET's intellectual property portfolio with its legacy expertise in human somatic stem cell manufacturing and bioprocessing; along with access to a recent worldwide license to utilize CRISPR; and an exclusive license from JP2MRI's pipeline of immortalized human stem cells that are designed for the bio-production of vaccines, allogeneic cell therapies (including CAR-T and CAR-NK cells), biologics and gene therapy vectors that together provide principled and scientific advantages over the current art. According to Dr. Moy who is the CEO and Co-Founder of CET and Founder of JP2MRI, "CET's objective is to expand contract manufacturing and research services for CET and JP2MRI's therapeutic pipeline, as well as biopharmaceutical partners who wish to license CET's pivotal intellectual property to advance their pipeline in cell therapy, biologics, vaccines and gene therapy vectors."

Contact JP2MRI:
Jay Kamath 
CEO
Phone: 319-688-7367
Email: jay.kamath@jp2mri.org

About CET:
Cellular Engineering Technologies (CET) is a biotechnology company that specializes in cell manufacturing and contract research services directed towards improving personalized and regenerative medicine. CET has in cellular and tissue engineering, with a key focus on cell manufacturing and tissue culture media optimization alongside research services that use non-embryonic human cells for less controversial bioprocessing. CET has the largest repository of human somatic stem cells and is the sole source manufacturer of some rare postnatal stem cells. CET employs a first-in-kind induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology that is virus-free and oncogene-free with better predictability for drug discovery and safety in cell and gene therapy. CET distributes its products and services in Canada, United States, Asia, and Europe. For additional information please visit: www.celleng-tech.com.

About JP2MRI:
The John Paul II Medical Research Institute (JP2MRI) is a non-profit medical research organization whose mission is to conduct adult stem cell research for its therapeutic priorities, which include: 1) Neurodegenerative Diseases; 2) Rare Diseases; 3) Cancer; and 4) Chronic Diseases that are unmet and underperformed by the biopharmaceutical industry. The Institute conducts medical research consistent within the Catholic healthcare guidelines.