A research team of Korea University Anam Hospital (KUAH) has developed induced pluripotent stem cell technology for people with multiple myeloma, receiving international recognition.
The hPSCreg, a global registry for human-induced pluripotent stem cell lines (HiPSC), recognized the technology of induced pluripotent stem cells customized for multiple myeloma developed by the research team led by Professor Kim Byung-soo.
HiPSC is reprogrammed by involving dedifferentiation factors into human adult cells. HiPSC is expected to cure many severe and intractable diseases by inducing tissue regeneration and cell therapy. The research team has increased reprogramming efficiency by more than 10-folds with a human placenta-derived conditioned batch from the existing technique.
The research team also produced an induced pluripotent stem cell for acute leukemia patients for the first time.
Following the treatment for acute leukemia, the induced pluripotent stem cells for patients with multiple myeloma have shown the new technology's efficacy in clinical practice. Global pharmaceuticals are now making bold investments in induced pluripotent stem cell technology to develop chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cell (CAR-NK) and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell cell therapy (CAR-T).
"We have built an integrated system for all processes from the production of tailored induced pluripotent stem cells to treat patients with intractable diseases," Professor Kim said. "We are pleased to establish induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with multiple myeloma following acute leukemia and to be the first in the world to register the study results in hPSCreg.
The HiPSC technology has received domestic approval for intellectual rights and registered for a patent in the U.S., China, and Europe after filing the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application.
The research was conducted with the support of the National Research Foundation of Korea.
Stem Cell Research, a peer-reviewed journal of cell biology, published the study results in its August issue.