Curi Bio and NEXEL Announce Celogics, Joint Venture to Develop Leading iPSC-derived Cell Products

Celogics, based in Seattle, will offer high-quality iPSC-derived cell products for drug discovery and safety testing

Curi Bio, a global leader in development of human stem cell-based platforms for disease modeling and drug discovery, and NEXEL, a leader in induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology, today announced the formation of Celogics, a joint venture company focused on the development and commercialization of human iPSC-derived cell products for drug discovery, drug safety testing, and biological research. Celogics iPSC production and distribution headquarters will be located in Seattle, WA.

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The US accounts for nearly 50% of the global stem cell market, and the Celogics joint venture partnership with market leader Curi Bio will represent a major strategic entry for Nexel into the US. Celogics will provide Nexel’s iPSC-derived cell products, including Cardiosight®-S cardiomyocytes, to US and global markets, and will launch a Seattle-based iPSC production facility to support rapid growth and iPSC contract development and manufacturing services. Celogics will also develop and commercialize next-generation iPSC-derived cell products.

Curi Bio is a global leader in developing cardiac, skeletal muscle, and neuromuscular in vitro disease models, and provides market-leading products and services for modeling of human tissues for drug discovery. Curi’s 3D engineered tissue platform (Mantarray™) can be used in combination with iPSC-derived cell models to develop advanced 3D heart and muscle tissue models for phenotypic screening. Curi Bio has previously been awarded more than $7M in grant funding by the US National Institutes of Health to support development of core technologies, including a proprietary approach for advanced functional maturation of iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (ComboMat™). By providing leading global pharmaceutical companies access to human-relevant models during preclinical drug development, Curi Bio helps leading pharmaceutical companies develop safer and more effective therapeutics in less time, at lower cost. NEXEL was the first Korean company to in-license iPSC technology and has advanced the in vitro toxicity field through successful commercialization of iPSC-derived cells that better mimic human cellular function.

Human iPSC-derived cells are rapidly becoming a vital tool in the drug development industry for the discovery, preclinical efficacy testing, and safety profiling of new medicines. iPSCs can be differentiated into a wide variety of human cell types, including cardiomyocytes, neurons, hepatocytes, and many others, and can be created from healthy individuals or patients who have specific diseases through a process called cellular reprogramming. iPSC-derived disease models serve as platforms for discovery of next-generation therapeutics.

Researchers in the pharmaceutical industry are increasingly relying on gene editing technologies such as CRISPR to create genetically-engineered iPSC-derived cellular models of human diseases, including cardiomyopathies and muscular dystrophies. Following major collaborative initiatives between US regulatory agencies and companies in the iPSC industry, human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes are increasingly being used by leading global pharmaceutical companies in cardiac safety screening.

“As a joint venture partnership between Curi Bio and Nexel, Celogics will be extremely well-positioned to meet the large and rapidly growing market need for high-quality human iPSC-derived cell products,” said Curi Bio CEO Michael Cho. “We look forward to helping cutting-edge researchers and pharmaceutical companies accelerate the discovery and development of next-generation therapies."

"Celogics is leading the global market with stem cell-derived somatic cell products for toxicity evaluation and drug discovery,” said Nexel CEO Choong-seong Han. “We are committed to developing and producing exceptional iPSCs that pharmaceutical quality control standards demand.”

About Curi Bio

Curi Bio’s preclinical discovery platform combines human stem cells, systems, and data to accelerate the discovery of new medicines. The Curi Engine is a seamless, bioengineered platform that integrates human iPSC-derived cell models, tissue-specific biosystems, and AI/ML-enabled phenotypic screening data. Curi’s suite of human stem cell-based products and services enable scientists to build more mature and predictive human iPSC-derived tissues—with a focus on cardiac, musculoskeletal, and neuromuscular models—for the discovery, safety testing, and efficacy testing of new drugs in development. By offering drug developers an integrated preclinical platform comprising highly predictive human stem cell models to generate clinically-relevant data, Curi is closing the gap between preclinical data and human results, accelerating the discovery and development of safer, more effective medicines.

For more information, please visit www.curibio.com.

About NEXEL

NEXEL, Co., Ltd. is a bio-company that was incorporated in 2012 with proprietary stem cell technologies. Their philosophy is to “make a better place” by supporting innovative research around the globe by providing high quality stem cell-derived cell products. NEXEL, Co., Ltd. launched the Cardiosight®-S in 2018 which has since been validated on multiple platforms as a pure and functional population of hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Other product lines include the Hepatosight®-S (iPS-derived hepatocytes) and the Neurosight®-S (iPS-derived neurons).

For more information, please visit: www.nexel.co.kr

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