Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
amount of information about a particular disease as development
progresses (Colman and Dressen, 2009). One criticism of such an
approach, however, is that cells in a dish cannot possibly account for
the actual ways that an individual is afflicted by a particular disease
and also does not account for the multiple interactions between cell
types that also contribute to disease aetiology (Colman and Dressen,
2009). That is, the specific representation of a given disease is argued
to be shaped by a complex array of factors that the cellular model
cannot possibly capture.
Such criticisms aside, there are already a number of disease-in-a-dish
iPSC applications in development. One of these is a model for Long
QT syndrome: a rare genetic heart disease that causes an abnormal
heart rhythm (Callaway, 2011a). Another disease-in-a-dish approach
is being developed for Rett syndrome: a genetic disorder that causes
neurodegeneration in children (Cyranowski, 2010). Some researchers
report that the use of iPSCs as a disease-in-a-dish model will only
work for genetic diseases, where the disease can be seen developing
in vitro
due to the genetic component of its progression (Callaway,
2011a). However, there have been attempts by researchers to study
the development of psychiatric illnesses through this same model
too, despite the complex nature of the illness, with a team in
California studying neurons created from iPSCs originally produced
from a skin biopsy donated by a young man suffering from
schizophrenia (Callaway, 2011b).
US biotechnology company iPierian is dedicated to this disease-in-
a-dish approach to using iPSCs for drug screening and development
(
http://www.ipierian.com
). The company has two main disease
focuses at this stage: neurodegenerative and metabolic. Partnering
with iPS Academia Japan (
http://ips-cell.net
) in early 2011, iPierian's
core commercial strategy has been based, until recently, on
industrializing patient-specific models for disease that will facilitate
drug development and screening (Timmerman, 2011). Until a board
restructure in June 2011 iPierian was working on developing
in-house therapeutic candidates, in the first instance, for diseases that
have few other treatment options. After the restructure, iPierian's
new commercial strategy is to focus on fewer therapeutic areas, with
a view to finding a buyer for the company (Timmerman, 2011).
