Sistemic Limited (Sistemic), the miRNA profiling company with facilities in Glasgow, Scotland and Boston, announced today the signature of an agreement to allow Progenitor Cell Therapy (PCT), Mountain View, CA, and Allendale, NJ, USA, a subsidiary of NeoStem, Inc, New York, to initiate evaluation studies on Sistemic’s SistemQC™ stem cell characterisation technology.
         The studies have been designed to allow PCT to evaluate the broad applicability of SistemQC™ technology in stem cell characterisation employing Sistemic’s patented miRNA profiling system and proprietary analytical approaches to produce miRNA panels, termed Key miRNAs or KmiRs™, which PCT may look to employ in the future in process optimisation and cell characterisation.
         Jim Reid, Chairman and CEO, Sistemic stated that “PCT is one of the world’s leading contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs) and, in fact, the only CDMO that can count a client with an FDA approved cell therapy (CT) product. It is a great achievement for Sistemic to start working with such a progressive and sector-leading company. We aim to assist PCT in developing a more precise understanding of CT products and thereby help the industry to more rapidly bring effective CT products to market. The CT industry has incredible promise and could be transformational in terms of how we treat a number of diseases that have a huge impact on individuals and healthcare systems alike. In working with PCT we see a clear opportunity to make a significant impact in this vital therapeutic sector.”
          Dr. Timothy C. Fong, PCT’s Vice President of Technology and Product Development, added, “We are pleased to work with Sistemic to develop assays to better define our developmental cell therapy products. This technology complements our current efforts and should strengthen our understanding of what cells look like and how they function.”