As detailed in a separate post, bit.bio have developed a novel cellular reprogramming technology, opti-ox™1 (optimized inducible overexpression), that can generate functional cells with high consistency from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). opti-ox overcomes gene silencing and enables controlled expression of transcription factors, and as a result, deterministic induction of a new cell identity. The resulting mature cells are physiologically relevant and phenotypically characterised, and for the first time, available at scale, offering predictive, in vitro, cells for research and drug screening.
Here we’ll be taking a closer look at the products already available for researchers. As the technology can be applied to generate many other mature cell types, more will be coming soon, including CNS cells, immune cells, and cells for toxicology and disease modelling.
The first human iPSC-derived products developed using opti-ox are the ioGlutamatergic Neurons and ioSkeletal Myocytes, which are both available across Europe through tebu-bio. There will be more to follow…