Four patents have been registered in Japan and the United States for a technology that can make stem cells without using a gene that may cause cancer, according to researchers at Kyoto University who claimed one of the patents.
The Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, a public institution, is planning to set relatively low licensing charges in hopes of encouraging more researchers to promote regenerative medicine and development of new drugs using artificially derived induced pluripotent stem cells.
To create iPS cells, several genes are implanted into cells taken from skin and other body parts. The procedure used to require the use of cancer-prone genes, but new methods that do not rely on such genes are increasing.