Namocell, Takara Bio USA and HepaTx collaborate on single cell genomics analysis for cell therapy to treat late-stage liver diseases

Mountain View, Calif., (February 20, 2020) - Namocell Inc., a leading provider of single cell sorting and dispensing platforms, announced today that it has entered into a collaboration with Takara Bio and HepaTx to use Namocell's Single Cell Dispensers to perform single cell isolation on HepaTx's unique hepatocyte-like cells (iHeps) developed from adipose tissue-derived stromal cells (ASCs), and characterize them by single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) using Takara Bio's SMART-Seq technology.

"We are excited to collaborate with Takara and HepaTx to leverage our unique single cell sorting and dispensing platform to support HepaTx's innovative stem cell-based cell therapy that could revolutionize the treatment of late-stage liver diseases by replacing liver transplants. Namocell's fast and gentle sorting and dispensing technology is enabling superior cell isolation for single cell analysis," said Dr. Junyu Lin, CEO of Namocell.

"We are excited to be working with Namocell and HepaTx and contribute to the development of an innovative clinical solution. Leveraging our SMART-Seq technology with Namocell's single cell dispenser is an ideal match for performing plate based single cell RNA-seq enabling researchers to perform full length sequence analysis on single cells providing a deeper view into gene expression and cellular differentiation," said Dr. Suvarna Gandlur, Associate Director of Next Generation Sequencing at Takara Bio USA.

"Namocell's and Takara's single cell technologies will help us advance our cell therapy platform to the clinic more quickly by enabling a deep molecular view of our development product. This will help us reach our goal of providing a scalable solution that can address clear clinical needs and provide better alternatives to liver transplants for patients," said Dr. Eric Schuur, CEO of HepaTx.