J. Jensen
Trailhead Biosystems,
United States
Keywords: HCP, cell differentiation, regenerative medicine, cell therapy, iPSC, cell lineage
Summary:
The Human Cell Project (HCP) is a plan to create efficient, cost-effective protocols to derive every cell type in the human body from pluripotent stem cells, to validate the cells, and to make these cells widely and safely available in large useful quantities. As the material of tomorrow, high-quality cells are desperately needed for multiple current applications, including predictive drug screens and drug safety testing, 3D bioprinting, organ-on-chip development, human disease understanding and therapy, and uses not yet imagined. Unstructured and uncoordinated differentiation protocols from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) have led to high clinical trial risks and exorbitant development costs. Industrial production of robustly specialized human cells has not been attained. Consequently, there is currently no comprehensive, validated set of iPSC-derived specialized human cells available even though many iPSC-banks of patient-specific disease states and healthy pluripotent cells have been built. Such banks are based on the idea that such iPSC can be used to create terminal cells. Banked iPSC cell lines have limited utility until scaled and differentiated into more terminal cell states. Trailhead Biosystems, Inc. has developed methods based on high-dimensional testing that extract critical process parameters to control cell fate and phenotype. Trailhead’s technology stack of HD-DoE™, HD-DoE coefficient database, and FATESPACE/TRAIL proprietary technologies allows the company to develop novel protocols for any cell type in the organism. Trailhead Biosystems, together with industrial, and academic leaders, have commenced the Human Cell Project - an ambitious, and comprehensive global program to deliver the complement of human cells for research, and cell-based therapy development.