However, a major limitation of this approach is that currently available models are almost invariably poor representations of cell found in intact animal tissues. One major reason for this lies in the fact that the process that allows the cells to become immortal also has an impact on the characteristics of the cell. It has recently emerged that this trade off can be overcome by using the conditional immortalisation approach which allows the immortalisation to be reversed thus allowing cells to revert to their original characteristics. X cellsyz is using this approach to develop novel cell models that will provide superior cell models that will have great benefit to the pharmaceutical discovery and development processes. To achieve this X cellsyz has licensed a number of key technologies which will allow it to dominate this area for the forseeable future.
Muscle cells are the first cell type to be immortalised.
These have been facilitated by the specialist knowledge of the founding scientists in the areas of muscle cell biology, cell physiology and metabolism. The companies scientific day to day progress is overseen in the seed phase by the three founding scientists with Dr Shepherd acting as Chief Scientific Officer.