As a leader in stem cell technology, cell culture, and research reagents, FUJIFILM Cellular Dynamics (FCDI) is dedicated to furthering innovation. That’s why FCDI never stops developing and supplying critical research tools and materials to life science researchers, powering drug discovery and helping to make the world a healthier place.
Disease Modeling
Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have unlocked new possibilities for understanding the molecular basis and mechanisms of human disease, advancing both discovery and clinical research. The availability of donor-specific iPS cells, coupled with gene-editing techniques and genome-wide association studies (GWAS), provides a powerful in vitro disease modeling system for a wide range of studies. These iPSC-derived iCell® products can be used for:
- Innate Disease Modeling: Models generated from donors with specific disease genotypes
- Engineered Disease Modeling: Apparently healthy normal (AHN) donor iPSCs, genome-engineered to introduce disease-specific mutations
- Induced Disease Modeling: Using cell culture conditions to invoke a disease state response, such as modeling epilepsy with seizurogenic compounds
Drug Discovery
Drug discovery and development is a costly and time-consuming process, and it remains prone to high failure rates. Advances in iPSC technology can help bridge the translational gap to human systems. FCDI’s terminally differentiated iCell products enable powerful strategies for accelerating drug discovery, offering a scalable, consistent source of both healthy and diseased cells for drug-response studies. Available models include:
- Cardiac disease models: Brugada syndrome, dilated cardiomyopathy, catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT)
- Healthy cardiac cells: High-purity populations with an extensive protocol library and diverse donor backgrounds
- Neural disease models: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, Rett syndrome, epilepsy
- Healthy neural cells: Glutamatergic neurons, GABAergic neurons, microglia, astrocytes, motor neurons, and retinal pigment epithelial cells
Safety, Toxicity, and Potency Testing
The limited biological relevance of traditional models continues to drive attrition through drug development pipelines. Physiologically relevant human cells are essential for in vitro studies that better predict toxicity and potency. Cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, microglia, and neurons derived from iPSCs can be used to predict drug-induced arrhythmia, liver toxicity, cytokine signaling, and neurotoxicity.
- iCell Cardiomyocytes: >95% pure populations, evaluated as part of the Comprehensive in vitro Proarrhythmia Assay (CiPA) initiative
- iCell Hepatocytes 2.0: >95% pure, genotyped for over 1,900 ADME markers across 200+ genes, enabling early detection of drug-induced liver injury (DILI)
- iCell Microglia: Relevant neuroimmune cells capable of phagocytosis and cytokine signaling for cytotoxicity screening
- iCell GABANeurons: Highly pure populations that exhibit spontaneous electrical activity, useful for multielectrode arrays (MEA) and botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) potency assays
- iCell GlutaNeurons: Highly pure glutamatergic populations suitable for predicting seizurogenic toxicity via calcium signaling
These lines can be cultured in 2D or 3D formats to increase physiological relevance and support high-throughput screening.
Stem Cell Banking
Induced pluripotent stem cells have become key resources for disease modeling, assay development, and drug discovery. Building banks of iPSC cells that represent a wide range of individual genotypes and phenotypes creates a valuable resource for government researchers, academic institutions, biotech companies, and pharmaceutical labs, while rigorous quality control reduces the cost and effort typically associated with bank development and cell sourcing.
FCDI is uniquely positioned to deliver access to relevant iPSC-derived biological models, with:
- High-throughput iPSC reprogramming and expansion at scale
- Rigorous quality control and information management systems
- A strong intellectual property portfolio
- Solid business infrastructure
FUJIFILM Life Sciences
Fujifilm brings continuous innovation and leading-edge products to provide solutions to the evolving needs for a broad spectrum of industries across healthcare functions. The diverse life science business from Fujifilm offers expertise and technologies for regenerative medicine, biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing, cell culture media and drug formulation.
- FUJIFILM Biosciences, Learn More
- FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical, Learn More
- FUJIFILM Biotechnologies, U.S.A., Inc., Learn More
- FUJIFILM VisualSonics, Inc., Learn More
