A Chemically Defined Substrate Array to Optimize Hepatocyte Derivation from IPSCs

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Primorigen will use SBIR SHIFT funds to develop an array system that can identify chemically-defined surfaces to optimize induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) differentiation and maturation. The platform initially will be validated for its capacty to help increase functional maturity of stem cell-derived hepatocytes, particularly cytochrome p450 (CYP) activity, and subsequently for large scale production of hiPSC-derived hepatocytes. Despite the widely acknowledged promise of human pluripotent stem cells to provide new therapies for numerous devastating degenerative diseases and new screening tools for more rapid, cost effective drug development, there are no reports of cells with sufficient functional maturity for these applications. Primorigen's technology will address this need by developing a novel peptide array for assessing the impact of insoluble cell signals on maturation of stem-cell derived lineages. Phase I studies will validate array stability and capacity to identify conditions that improve function and CYP activity of primary and hiPSC-derived hepatocytes. Phase II will apply this approach to other lineages including hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, and adapt the optimal conditions for high-capacity production of hepatocytes. Planned products include: 1) a user- friendly array kit to identify optimal surface treatments, and ultimately, 2) functionally mature cells produced in large volumes to support drug screening applications.