Geron, University of Oxford enter into agreement for stem-cell research

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., March 27 - Geron Corp. and the University of Oxford announced Monday a joint program to produce dendritic cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).

In a license with Isis Innovation Ltd., the university's technology transfer company, Geron receives a worldwide exclusive license under patent applications filed by the university for work by Oxford scientists who derived dendritic cells from hESCs, according to a news release.

In a linked research agreement, Geron will fund future technology work in the university's Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, the release said.

The license provides Geron with exclusive rights to the patent applications already filed for the Oxford technology, as well as inventions arising from the collaborative research that Geron will fund at Oxford, officials said.

"The combination of the Oxford technology with Geron's ability to grow and differentiate hESCs on a commercial scale opens up new possibilities in both vaccine delivery and tolerance-induction for hESC-based cell therapies. The research at Oxford is designed to complement Geron's internal efforts in this field, and we look forward to a collaborative and productive relationship," Geron's senior vice president of regenerative medicine, Jane Lebkowski, said in the release.

Dendritic cells are specialized cells of the immune system that have several functions of potential therapeutic significance.

In one form, dendritic cells are highly effective in presenting foreign antigens to the immune system to initiate an immune response against the source of those antigens, such as an invading pathogen or a tumor.

In another form, dendritic cells may act to block an immune response against an antigen by teaching the immune system not to attack it - a process known as "tolerizing" the individual to that antigen.

Isis Innovation is the technology transfer company of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Geron is a Menlo Park, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company.

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