BioLife Solutions and SAVSU announced both companies are providing their respective enhanced cold chain technologies for use in eight active and pending clinical trials conducted by the Diabetes Center and Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.
Qizhi Tang, PhD, the director of the Transplantation Research Laboratory, described a way to preferentially grow human Tregs in a clinical laboratory that are specifically targeted to protect donor tissue. These donor-targeted Tregs have been administered to liver and kidney transplant patients in phase I clinical trials under IND.
"Tregs hold great promise as treatments for autoimmune diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and even as therapies for cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases and obesity. Effective cold chain management is an important potential component for commercial distribution of these novel cell-based therapies if approved," Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor of Metabolism and Endocrinology and Director of the Hormone Research Institute in the Diabetes Center, said.