NYSCF and CMTA announce largest-ever research resource for neuropathy disorders

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA) today announced that the stem cell lines resulting from their pathbreaking collaboration beginning in 2014 will now be available for use by other researchers in the largest and first ever initiative of its kind.

Susan L. Solomon, NYSCF CEO and Co-founder stated, "This important collaboration has resulted in the largest ever number of CMT stem cell lines available for research around the world. This is a milestone for the field."

Patrick A Livney, CMTA CEO "is proud of the Association's STAR (Strategy to Accelerate Research) platform, dedicated to finding first treatments for various CMT diseases. As STAR's progress continues, the CMTA wants to enable and include all stakeholders interested in that mission to join in the effort. This NYSCF collaboration achieves that goal."

The CMTA provided and coordinated nineteen patients with a number of Charcot-Marie-Tooth diseases who provided fibroblasts, or skin cells, for research. NYSCF Research Institute scientists took these patient samples and turned them into induced pluripotent stem cell lines using its auotmated technology, the NYSCF Global Stem Cell Array. These stem cell lines will now be made available to academic and commercial investigators around the world through the NYSCF Repository. Eleven of the lines are currently available and the remaining eight lines are currently undergoing reprogramming.

The stem cell lines available represent the largest collection of lines for a variety of neuropathy disorders of known genetic causation. Visit http://www.nyscf.org/repository to order stem cell lines.

Provided by New York Stem Cell Foundation