Human Longevity (HLI), the genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company that J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., recently co-founded, has made a deal with Celgene Cellular Therapeutics (CCT) to license, develop, and co-promote Celgene's placental cell population, PSC-100. Per the deal, HLI can explore different applications for PSC-100, including testing it out against sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss. Celgene has also made an equity investment in HLI, the firms added.
HLI is planning to sequence and characterize PSC-100 at the molecular level to complement the data Celgene picked up from Phase I studies of the cell population. The company believes that the agreement with CCT offers it another avenue for research and development in stem cells and cellular therapeutics to go with its own work in stem cells.
“We think that cellular-based therapeutics combined with our genomics-based discovery systems offer exciting potential for age-related diseases,” Venter said in a statement.
HLI, which primarily aims to build the world's most comprehensive human genotype and phenotype database to tackle age-related diseases, was co-founded by Robert Hariri, M.D., Ph.D., who is also chairman, founder, CSO, and former CEO of CCT.
