Göteborg, Sweden, Takara Bio Europe AB, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., announced today that it is launching the Cellartis iPS Cell to Hepatocyte Differentiation System and related ancillary products. This system provides a complete solution for directed differentiation of disease-specific or patient-specific human inducible pluripotent stem (hiPS) cells to hepatocytes by combining a standardized protocol and optimized, ready-to-use media and coating reagents.

Takara Bio Europe AB has been offering human iPS cell-derived hepatocytes, Cellartis Enhanced hiPS-HEP cells, since 2010. These cells are a highly homogeneous population of hepatocytes derived from hiPS cells. Now for the first time, Takara Bio Europe AB’s proven hepatocyte differentiation protocol will be available in a do-it-yourself kit format, enabling researchers to differentiate their own hiPS cells into definitive endoderm and further into hepatocytes using a highly robust and reproducible workflow. The hepatocyte differentiation workflow was developed by Takara Bio Europe AB scientists following extensive internal testing and validation on more than 25 lines, including three commercially available hiPS cell-derived hepatocyte products prepared from different donors.

“This novel differentiation system is the first commercially available product to support the complete differentiation workflow from hiPS cells to definitive endoderm and further to hepatocytes” said Kristina Runeberg, Site Head and Senior Director, Business Development, at Takara Bio Europe AB. “We’re excited to expand our product offering with a complete hepatocyte differentiation system that can allow the creation of large panels of hiPSC-derived hepatocytes with specific genotypes/phenotypes, providing an ideal solution for disease modeling, in vitro drug discovery, drug metabolism, and toxicology-related studies.”

About Takara Bio Europe AB

Takara Bio Europe AB, a subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., is focusing on stem cell derived products and services for drug discovery, toxicity testing, and applications within regenerative medicine. The company leverages long-standing experience in stem cell handling and scale-up together with leading expertise in differentiation of cells into mature and functional human cells. Specifically, the company possesses broad expertise in human pluripotent stem cells, including both hiPSC and hESC and related media. Takara Bio Europe AB is located in state-of-the-art facilities in Göteborg, Sweden.

About Clontech Laboratories, Inc.

Clontech Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., develops, manufactures, and distributes a wide range of life science research reagents under the Takara, Clontech and Cellartis brands. Key products include SMARTer cDNA synthesis kits for a variety of samples and applications, including NGS; high-performance qPCR and PCR reagents (including the TaKaRa Ex Taq,TaKaRa LA Taq, Titanium, and Advantage enzymes); Cellartis stem cells and stem cell reagents; RT enzymes and SMART library construction kits; the innovative In-Fusion cloning system; Guide-it gene editing tools; Tet-based inducible gene expression systems; Living Colors fluorescent proteins; and a range of Macherey-Nagel nucleic acid purification tools. These and other products support applications including NGS; gene discovery, regulation, and function studies; protein expression and purification; RNAi, gene editing, and stem cell studies; and plant and food research.

About Takara Bio, Inc.

Takara Bio Inc. is part of Takara Holdings Inc., and represents the biomedical business interests of its parent company. Takara Bio is committed to improving the human condition through biotechnology with three primary areas of focus: developing research tools for the life sciences, gene therapy, and nutraceuticals. Takara has been focusing on biomedical research since 1967. Takara Bio has positioned itself as a leading company in the life science market through the Takara, Clontech and Cellartis brands.