Stemcell Technologies Inc. Launches First Cell Culture Medium to Enable Derivation and Maintenance of True Rat Embryonic Stem Cells

StemCells, Inc. announced today the launch of GS1-R?? the first commercially available medium to enable the derivation, maintenance and growth of true (germline competent) rat embryonic stem (ES) cells. GS1-R, the latest addition to the Company?? SC Proven? line of specialty cell culture products, is expected to have significant utility in the creation of genetically engineered rat models of human disease for use in academic, medical and pharmaceutical research.

The rat is a valuable tool in drug discovery. Both mice and rats are used by scientists as models for human disease. However, because rats are physiologically more similar to humans than are mice, rat models can be better suited for assessing drug efficacy and toxicity. To date, efforts to model certain human diseases using rats have been hindered by a lack of the true rat ES cells needed to genetically engineer precise disease models. GS1-R will help scientists overcome this barrier as it provides the cell culture conditions necessary to consistently generate true rat ES cell lines.

??he use of GS1-R could open the door to new and more effective drug discovery methods,??said Stewart Craig, senior vice president, development and operations at StemCells, Inc. ??n the pharmaceutical industry, rats are regarded as the preclinical model of choice for studying the in vivo effects of drugs for a wide range of disease indications. By providing a route to true rat embryonic stem cell lines, GS1-R is expected to facilitate efforts to achieve new, more sophisticated disease models that could lead to better predictability of human responses to drugs.??BR>
President and CEO Martin McGlynn added, ??he launch of GS1-R reflects our commitment to market cell culture products that are innovative and useful to the growing number of researchers in the stem cell field, and we look forward to launching additional SC Proven products in the coming year.??BR>
The proprietary, breakthrough technology behind GS1-R was first published in December 2008 in the peer-reviewed journal Cell 1,2 after academic researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States succeeded in deriving the first true rat ES cells. StemCells, Inc. owns exclusive rights to the rat ES cell technology described in this publication and the media formulation used to create these rat pluripotent cell lines.

The defined, serum-free GS1-R media formulation contains selective small molecule inhibitors that act to eliminate differentiation-inducing signals and promote cell survival, enabling the long-term maintenance of true germline competent rat ES cells in a pluripotent state.