Cellectis, the genome engineering specialist, and Etablissement Français du Sang (EFS), the only civilian blood transfusion service in France, announce that StemRed, an ambitious collaborative programme to produce red blood cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) has started on March 1.

This programme, which also involves Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC), Bertin Technologies and CECS (Centre d’Etude des Cellules Souches), will run for a period of 7 years. It will receive funding of €9.3 million from OSEO, which provides financial support for innovative French companies, through its Industrial Strategic Innovation Programme. This support is contingent upon the achievement of certain pre-established milestones.

“StemRed’s main goal is to produce these cultured red blood cells on a large scale,” said Professor Luc Douay of UPMC and CSO of EFS Ile de France, who pioneered this work.

“In the short term, these red blood cells may help improve the treatment of patients with a rare blood group, or receiving repeated transfusions and posing complex transfusion problems,” added Professor Gérard Tobelem, president of EFS.

“Cellectis and EFS will develop and commercialize cultured red blood cells in the framework of equal partnership”, explained Dr David Sourdive, executive vice-president for Corporate Development at Cellectis and CEO of Ectycell, a Cellectis subsidiary for industrial applications of iPS cells .

Cellectis improves life by applying its genome engineering expertise to a broad range of applications, including agriculture, bioresearch and human therapeutics.

Non-for-profit public structures that rely on voluntary blood donation, Etablissement Français du Sang were established in 2000. Under the supervision of the French Ministry of Health, its main mission is to provide blood products for the whole territory. Further to its core activity, EFS develops therapeutic activities and research programmes to bring scientific and medical progress to the patient.