ReNeuron Group PLC (AIM:RENE) said it has inked a collaboration agreement with University College London (UCL) where scientists are carrying out research on a new form of cancer treatment called cellular oncology.
Specifically, they are assessing the potential to generate immune cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Ultimately, the aim of the work is to create a treatment that can recognise and specifically kill tumour cells.
ReNeuron will be providing UCL with iPSCs from its CTX neural progenitor cell line.
These cells are immortalised, which means they don’t stop dividing in the way normal cells would.
This could ultimately lower the cost of creating the technology, allowing for scale production and, by extension, delivering an off-the-shelf stem cell therapy.
ReNeuron’s chief scientific officer, Dr Stefano Pluchino, said: “This collaboration is another strong development for ReNeuron which demonstrates the uniqueness and strong translational potential of our proprietary iPSC technology platform and will allow us to further expand into the oncology space.
“If this initial research is successful, significantly large numbers of cancer patients can be treated with next generation alternate cancer therapies."