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Namocell, Takara Bio, HepaTx Partner on Single-Cell Genomics for Late-Stage Liver Disease

NEW YORK – Namocell, Takara Bio, and HepaTx have launched a collaboration to apply Namocell's Single-Cell Dispenser tool to perform single-cell isolation on HepaTx's hepatocyte-like cells (iHeps), as well as characterize them by single-cell RNA-seq using Takara's SMART-seq technology.

Namocell's microfluidic-based platform dispenses single cells into a 96-well plate in less than a minute.

HepaTx CEO Erich Schuur said in a statement that Namocell's and Takara's single-cell technology will help the firm develop its cell therapy platform by providing a deep molecular view of its development product. By doing so, he believes HepaTx will move closer to its goal of offering a scalable solution that provides improved alternatives to liver transplants.

Financial details of the agreement were undisclosed.

"Leveraging our SMART-seq technology with Namocell's single-cell dispenser is an ideal match for performing plate-based single cell RNA-seq, enabling researchers to perform full-length sequence analysis on single cells [and provide] a deeper look into gene expression and cellular differentiation," Suvarna Gandlur, associate director of next-generation sequencing at Takara, said in a statement.

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