Merck Millipore and Sistemic announce stem cell collaboration

Merck Millipore has announced an alliance with Sistemic to develop new technology that will help advance stem cell-based therapeutics toward clinical testing.

The organisations will team up to create a proprietary monitoring methodology which uses Sistemic's microRNA marker detection capability to enable consistent growth of stem cells within Merck Millipore's Mobius CellReady platform.

These markers could also be incorporated into a commercially-available kit for quality control of stem cells in culture and will be developed with the aid of expertise from both organisations.

It will help to ensure the consistency and quality of large-scale culture systems, thus paving the way towards greater clinical use of stem cell products.

Robert Shaw, commercial director of Merck Millipore's stem cell initiative, said: "We are excited to be partnering with Sistemic, as the company's leading microRNA-based solutions will help us continue our efforts toward the commercialisation of stem cell processing."

This comes after the firm recently announced that it will be providing funding for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to support its work over the next four years.