Connecticut Researchers Turn Stem Cells into Chondrocytes
BY LAUREN UZDIENSKI, JUNE 14, 2010
In April, a team of University of Connecticut researchers published a paper on their "direct, rapid, progressive, and substantially uniform" method of developing embryonic stem cells into chondrocytes, the cells that form cartilage. Now a profile published on UConn's website walks readers through the process of developing the technology and how the team is working to commercialize it.
The researchers utilized high-density micromass culture to demonstrate that in the presence of BMP-2 or BMP-2 and TGF-beta, undifferentiated human embryonic stem cells can undergo chondrogenic differentiation. Cells were harvested at different points during differentiation, so the scientists can further study optimal opportunities for cartilage repair. UConn Today reports from an interview with one of the paper's authors that compared to later-stage cells, "earlier-stage cells may be particularly responsive to local signals that promote their ability to repair cartilage damage."
The next step is testing the cells' capacity for cartilage repair in an animal model, which UConn's Center for Science and Technology Commercialization will support with $75,000 in funding. The scientists have already filed a patent application covering the methodology for producing the cells and have formed a company called Chondrogenics Inc. Incorporating allows them to more easily raise funds for additional research as well as file for a federal SBIR grant. Further studies will be conducted at UConn's Technology Incubator laboratories, which the article says can connect young companies with "resources that can accelerate the success and viability of the technology endeavor."
The researchers also credit Connecticut's stem cell initiative for aiding in the development of their technology. The legislation, signed into law in 2005, offered almost $20 million in grants for stem cell research. Similar state-funded stem cell research programs are in place in California, Maryland and New York, among other states.
