by CORDIS

The European Bank for induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (EBiSC) and CHDI Foundation have collaborated with Censo Biotechnologies to generate a cohort of 45 iPSC lines derived from Huntington’s disease gene-expansion carriers and associated controls. These new lines will be used to further investigate the mechanisms of HD progression and for the development of novel therapeutics and will be widely available to any interested researcher via the EBiSC catalog at cells.ebisc.org.

“These iPSC lines offer great promise as a model system for HD research and therapeutic development, a terrible disease that devastates families across multiple generations,” explains Dan Felsenfeld, Director of Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine at CHDI. “A major focus of CHDI’s mission is to make resources such as these widely available to researchers to stimulate new research, as well as to support ongoing work of established investigators.”

The donor samples were collected by researchers at University College London and Ulm University Medical Center in collaboration with CHDI. Donors included male and female volunteers aged 30 to 59 years; samples from HDGECs carry CAG expansions ranging from 41 through 50 repeats. Specific CAG-repeat data associated with individual iPSC lines is available via the EBiSC catalog. Researchers interested in obtaining these lines should visit cells.ebisc.org/ and search “CHDI.”

The EBiSC catalog is in constant expansion and will continue collecting iPSC lines associated with neurodegenerative disorders like Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS as well as cardiovascular and eye disease, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and neuropathic pain.