Heriot-Watt University Becomes Third Scottish University to Join ITI Life Sciences' Stem Cell Technologies R&D Programme
ITI Life Sciences announced that Heriot-Watt University (Heriot-Watt) has joined its £9.5 million Stem Cell Technologies (SCT) R&D programme, which started in January 2007.
Heriot-Watt will join two other Scottish universities (Glasgow and Dundee) and biotech firm Cellartis in a research programme to develop new technologies to automate the production of high quality human stem cells. Heriot-Watt joins the ITI programme as it advances through its second phase of development. This phase began in May 2007 and is designed to identify new compounds that induce human embryonic stem (hES) cells to differentiate into desired cell types, such as heart or liver cells. Heriot-Watt will use its expertise in medicinal chemistry to optimise the most promising compounds to improve their performance and ability to induce, consistently and controllably, the desired changes in hES cells.
It is anticipated that these compounds will then be incorporated into an automated process designed to produce stem cells in sufficient quantity for high-throughput screening in drug discovery and development, and to enable scale-up to facilitate commercial and clinical exploitation.
Dr Eleanor Mitchell, Managing Director of ITI Life Sciences, said: "Our stem cell technologies programme continues to make excellent progress and Heriot-Watt University joining the programme is particularly pleasing as it expands its scope to access the research expertise resident in a third Scottish university. This is a great example of the joined-up thinking and innovative nature of the ITI model, as well as being a very strong advertisement for the high quality of life sciences academic research in Scotland."
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