Maurie Perl
212-365-7443
mperl@nyscf.org
NYSCF AND CMTA ANNOUNCE LARGEST-EVER RESEARCH RESOURCE FOR NEUROPATHY DISORDERS
New York, NY (June 21, 2016)–The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) today announced that the stem cell lines resulting from a path-breaking collaboration that began in 2014 will now be available for use by other researchers in the largest and first-ever initiative of its kind.
Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF CEO and Co-founder, stated, “This important collaboration has resulted in the largest-ever number of CMT stem cell lines available for research around the world. This is a milestone for the field.”
The CMTA CEO said, he “We are proud of the Association’s STAR (Strategy to Accelerate Research) platform, dedicated to finding first treatments for various CMT diseases. As STAR’s progress continues, the CMTA wants to enable and include all stakeholders interested in that mission to join in the effort. This NYSCF collaboration achieves that goal.”
The CMTA provided and coordinated 19 patients with a number of Charcot-Marie-Tooth diseases who provided fibroblasts, or skin cells, for research. NYSCF Research Institute scientists took these patient samples and turned them into induced pluripotent stem cell lines using its auotmated technology, the NYSCF Global Stem Cell Array™. These stem cell lines will now be made available to academic and commercial investigators around the world through the NYSCF Repository. Eleven of the lines are currently available and the remaining eight lines are currently undergoing reprogramming.
The stem cell lines available represent the largest collection of lines for a variety of neuropathy disorders of known genetic causation.
About The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association
The Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) is a registered 501c3 dedicated to serving an international patient community that suffers from rare and disabling neuropathies of genetic origin (www.cmtausa.org). The Association directly engages its STAR scientific and clinical research network in the identification, validation and clinical development of therapies for the different Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorders.
About The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute
The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute is an independent organization accelerating cures and better treatments for patients through stem cell research. The NYSCF Research Institute employs over 45 researchers in New York, and is an acknowledged world leader in stem cell research and in developing pioneering stem cell technologies, including the NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM. Additionally, the NYSCF supports another 75 researchers at other leading institutions worldwide through its Innovator Programs, including the NYSCF–Druckenmiller Fellowships and the NYSCF–Robertson Investigator Awards. The NYSCF focuses on translational research in a model designed to overcome the barriers that slow discovery and replaces silos with collaboration.