Plasticell, a biotechnology company specializing in stem cell screening and cell therapies, has entered into a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline for the use of its stem cell screening technology, CombiCult, to optimize induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to specific blood cell lineages for GSK’s therapeutic research.
 
Plasticell will use its CombiCult technology to screen combinations of molecules provided by GSK to identify and optimize iPSC differentiation protocols. Plasticell’s technology will allow the simultaneous screening of multiple iPSC lines, to help facilitate the development of a robust protocol that is applicable across lines. 
 
Plasticell’s founder and executive chairman, Dr. Yen Choo, said, “During the course of developing its therapeutic programs, Plasticell has acquired considerable expertise in pluripotent and hematopoietic stem cells, the derivation of specific hematopoietic cell types and the use of small molecules to drive stem cell differentiation. Plasticell’s combinatorial and multiplexing technologies are an ideal solution for iPSC differentiation where high developmental potency and variability between different patient-derived cell lines often frustrates the search for robust and efficient differentiation protocols.” 
 
The two companies have partnered on various stem cell research projects in the past ten years. Plasticell is co-located at the Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst, an emerging cell therapy hub on the site of GSK’s Medicines Research Centre.