I Peace offers individuals the opportunity to produce and bank iPSCs to enable future access to personalized cell therapies.
Last week at the Vitalist Bay longevity event in California, Japanese biotech I Peace announced that it is offering its “personalized iPS cell production and banking” services in the United States. The company says it now offers Americans the opportunity to preserve and access their own rejuvenated stem cells for future therapeutic use.
Originating from the groundbreaking work of Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka, iPSCs are created by reprogramming adult somatic cells – such as those from the skin or blood – into a pluripotent state using a specific set of transcription factors. These cells can then be differentiated into virtually any type of human cell, including neurons, heart cells, liver cells and insulin-producing pancreatic cells.
Because they are derived from the patient’s own tissues, iPSCs are thought to hold significant potential in regenerative medicine. Crucially, unlike conventional adult stem cells, which retain the biological age of the donor, iPSCs reflect a youthful state, and the hope is that they will one day enable the development of future therapies to counteract the effects of aging.
I Peace founder, Koji Tanabe, a graduate from Yamanaka’s lab at Kyoto University, was part of the team that created the first human iPS cell line. The company’s US offering includes a personal iPS cell production and banking service called My Peace. The service enables individuals to create and store their own youthful stem cells while in good health, ensuring a personalized, biological resource is readily available for future therapeutic use.
“We aim to bring the power of iPS cell technology to everyone — so people can take charge of their own longevity and unlock a healthier, longer life,” said Tanabe in a statement.
According to I Peace, clinical-grade iPSC production was once prohibitively expensive, with each cell line costing millions of dollars and requiring extensive time to produce. The company claims it has developed proprietary techniques that allow for the parallel production of multiple donor-derived iPS cell lines without cross-contamination, improving scalability and reducing costs.
By industrializing the production process, I Peace says it is capable of generating hundreds of iPSC lines per year at for “thousands of dollars” per individual. The company hasn’t revealed its exact pricing at this stage, and also claims it already provides “longevity and rejuvenation therapies” based on these cells, although there is little information around what those therapies actually entail.
Beyond its consumer business, I Peace says it also collaborates with pharmaceutical and biotech companies by supplying clinical-grade IPS cells that meet the regulatory standards set by the FDA and Japan’s PMDA.
Photograph: svitlanah/Envato
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