
US-based clinical-stage biotechnology platform company Humacyte and cell therapy solutions provider Pluristyx have expanded their partnership to advance cell therapies.
Humacyte is a biotechnology company developing universally implantable, bioengineered human tissue at commercial scale, including investigational BioVascular Pancreas (BVP).
The company designed BVP for the delivery and survival of insulin-producing islets inside the body, using its acellular tissue-engineered vessel (ATEV) as a carrier.
Pluristyx manufactures and markets PluriBank-induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) lines, tools, technologies, and services to support the development of cellular therapies.
The company has developed a manufacturing process for using a licensed Mad7 gene editing technology to block Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) markers expression.
The partnership builds on Humacyte’s existing license for Pluristyx’s PluriBank cell lines.
In July 2024, Humacyte licensed Pluristyx’s PluriBank iPSC line as precursors for manufacturing insulin-producing cells for its BVP product candidate.
PluriBank iPSCs are derived from regulatory-compliant donors, characterised, and expanded and banked to provide purity, identity, and genetic integrity for patient safety.
Pluristyx will perform gene editing of its PluriBank cells for use in BVP for the potential treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes.
Humacyte is optimising a process to differentiate immune-evading iPSCs into a pancreatic islet component of their BVP that will aim to normalise glucose levels in diabetic patients.
Humacyte founder and CEO Laura Niklason said: “We are excited to grow our pipeline by advancing the development of the BVP, an advanced tissue and organ system.
“The stem cell and gene editing technologies from Pluristyx have promising advantages for our BioVascular Pancreas and other cell and tissue therapies.”
Pluristyx co-founder and CEO Benjamin Fryer said: “The recent FDA approval for Humacyte’s Symvess (acellular tissue-engineered vessel) for use as a vascular conduit for extremity arterial injury is a huge step forward to treating trauma patients.
“Pluristyx is proud to support Humacyte as they develop the BioVascular Pancreas, a highly needed organ system for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes.”