BrainXell Inc. (Madison, Wisconsin) and iPS Academia Japan, Inc. have announced a global licensing agreement. BrainXell received an SBIR award in 2016.
Date: Sep 30, 2016 Source: PR Web (
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BrainXell Inc. (Madison, Wisconsin) and iPS Academia Japan, Inc. (Kyoto, Japan) have announced a global licensing agreement covering some of iPS Academia Japan's induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell patent portfolio. BrainXell may now develop and commercialize iPS-derived cells and offer related services to its customers under this non-exclusive agreement. The iPS cell patent portfolio is mainly the result of work by Professor Shinya Yamanaka at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
"BrainXell is now enabled through this iPS cell technology license and its Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) license on neural stem cell differentiation to provide a broad range of neural cells for research at numerous institutions and biopharmaceutical companies," said Zhong-Wei Du, Chief Technology Officer of BrainXell. "We are expanding our product offerings with patient variants of neural cells, which are crucial to a broad range of research efforts for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS. We will advance our research and discovery in the area of stem cell technology and provide our customers with the tools necessary in this important, breakthrough area."
"We use our proprietary technology to direct human iPSCs to subtype-specific neural progenitors followed by expansion and rapid maturation. This approach allows for large-scale production of highly enriched functional neurons with consistent quality for drug discovery and cell therapy," said Dr. Su-Chun Zhang, the Steenbock Professor in Behavioral and Neural Sciences at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, and co-founder of BrainXell.
About iPS Academia Japan, Inc.
iPS Academia Japan, Inc. (AJ) is an affiliate of Kyoto University, and its main role is to manage and utilize the patents and other intellectual properties held/controlled by Kyoto University, other universities, and research institutions in the field of iPSC technologies so that the research results contribute to health and welfare worldwide. AJ was established in Kyoto in June 2008. AJ's patent portfolio consists of more than 125 patent families (the total number of patent applications is about 420 cases) in the iPSC technology as of April 2016, and concluded license agreements with more than 150 entities worldwide. (http://www.ips-cell.net)
About BrainXell Inc.
BrainXell provides its expertise using iPSC-derived neural cells for use on a custom basis to pharmaceutical companies for research programs. Such neural cells may be provided directly to the customer or optimized for screening use at BrainXell Inc.with its experienced team to support assay development.
BrainXell was co-founded by Professor Su-Chun Zhang who is the winner of a grant from the University of Wisconsin-Madison D2P (Discovery to Product) program and maintains laboratory facilities adjacent to the WiCell Research Institute. The Company has key licensing agreements with the WARF and iPS Academia Japan, Inc. giving BrainXell the right to use critical, patented technologies for both production of stem cell-derived products and for contract manufacturing.
