Date added: 10/08/2016 Top Story: Forging a Golden Age of Cell-based Therapy Technologies and Personalized Medicine, Part One

 

 

CELLBANK AUSTRALIA'S NEWSLETTER

 

 

NewsflashHuman Cell Authentication Testing

 

 

Human Cell Authentication Testing

 

 

For human cells, CellBank Australia uses Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profiling to examine the number of tetranucleotide repeats at various loci to differentiate cell lines from different donors. CellBank Australia now offers ** human cell authentication testing for $166 ** Australian dollars per sample, excluding GST.

 

For more information about our service, click here.

 

 

Cell-based Research

 

 

Cell culture has been an integral part of the life sciences for decades and will continue to be so. In the medical sciences, high-quality cultured cells are crucial in the study of disease, the discovery of new disease treatments, and the biomanufacturing of cell-based and tissue-engineered products for use as therapeutics. Most cell-based therapies are still experimental, and are mainly being taken forward into clinical trials by researchers in universities and hospitals. Researchers are also using next-generation cell culture techniques to generate new cell lines for use as tools in personalized medicine.

 

 

2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap

 

 

Led by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel AO, the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap (2016 Roadmap) initiative - commissioned by the Australian Government - will set out Australia’s long term research infrastructure needs and propose future areas of investment, so that Australia continues to maintain its research excellence and increases innovation.

 

On 20 July 2016, a "National Research Infrastructure Capability Issues Paper" was released by the 2016 Roadmap Expert Working Group (EWG). The Paper sets out the proposed capability requirements that will inform the development of the 2016 Roadmap. A number of Health and Medical Science capability focus areas related to cell-based therapy technologies and personalized medicine are presented therein including biologics, stem cell core facilities, bioengineering for precision medicine, and novel cell therapies such as cancer immunotherapy.

 

Cell-based Therapy Technologies and Personalised MedicineSubmissions against questions posed by the issues paper and other comments besides have been invited, as part of a consultation program for the development of the 2016 Roadmap. CellBank Australia will make a submission, and urges others to think about research and development of cell-based therapy technologies and personalized medicine in their submissions.

 

Click here to read the issues paper and access the submission template. The submissions process will close on Friday 9 September 2016.

 

 

National Cell Manufacturing Consortium

 

 

The National Cell Manufacturing Consortium (NCMC) is the first US based national consortium focused on developing, maturing, and implementing technologies that can enable large-scale, cost-effective manufacturing of therapeutic cells.


In February 2016, the NCMC released "A Technology Roadmap to 2025," which is focused on advancing the manufacturing of cells intended for use in final products. Here the point is made that a convergence science approach that brings together industry and clinical Good Manufacturing Practice centres, academic researchers, physicians, biologists, and clinical scientists, is needed to realize large-scale manufacturing of therapeutic cells.

 

Click here to read a 13 June 2016 news article about the NCMC. Click here to read the roadmap.

 

 

Innovative Medicines Initiative

 

 

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, and aims to speed up the development of better and safe medicines for patients.

 

Earlier this year, IMI released its draft report, "Facilitating the translation of advanced therapies to patients in Europe," which considers the potential of IMI as a platform for enhancing the research and development of medicinal products based on genetic engineering, innovative cell-based therapies and tissue-engineered products - or as they are commonly known in the EU - advanced therapy medicinal products. Submissions on the report were open until 25 July 2016.

 

To read the draft report, click here.

 

 

Human Cancer Models Initiative

 

 

The Human Cancer Models Initiative (HCMI) - an international effort to develop 1,000 cancer cell models that better represent the hallmarks and diversity of human cancer - has announced that a pilot project will be conducted so that HCMI members have a chance to "work out the kinks" in their protocols. The HCMI is part of the US National Cancer Institute's Precision Medicine Initiative in Oncology.

 

To read about the HCMI on the Sanger Institute website and to watch a short video, click here. To read a Science news article published on 11 July 2016, click here. To read a Nature Reviews Drug Discovery news article published on 29 July 2016, click here.

 

 

Peter Mac’s Cancer Immunotherapy Research Program

 

 

Established in the year 2000, Australia’s largest and longest-standing cancer immunology and immunotherapy program has received a major boost with the construction of a new lab to be housed on Level 13 of the $1 billion Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre building. The lab will form part of the Ian Potter Centre for New Treatments and will be led by Professor Joe Trapani, Executive Director of Cancer Research and Head of the Cancer Immunology Research Program at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

 

To read the media release, click here. To find out more about the Peter Mac Cancer Immunology Program, click here.

 

 

How CellBank Australia can Help

 

 

As Australia's only national not-for-profit cell line repository, CellBank Australia is an essential part of Australia's national research infrastructure. Our facility provides quality-validated cell lines and cell culture related services on a cost-recovery basis to the Australian and international research community.

 

 

International Depositary Authority

 

 

Under the Budapest Treaty, certain culture collections are recognized as International Depositary Authorities (IDAs) and a deposit made with any one of them is recognized as valid for patent purposes by all the countries in which protection for the relevant invention is sought. CellBank Australia has been recognized as an IDA under the Budapest Treaty since 2010.

 

Due to proximity, our Patent Deposit service is well suited to inventors in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, who wish to deposit human or animal cell lines or hybridomas in support of patent applications. 

 

To learn more about our Patent Deposit service, click here.

 

 

Sydney

 

 
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