Power Panel®: Genetically Diverse Embryonic Stem Cells

Different people respond differently to drugs. A major reason for differential drug response is genetic variation. Identifying genetic differences that can predict pharmacological or therapeutic response is at the core of personalized medicine, where therapeutic decisions are tailored to the individual patient. Identifying those differences, or predictive biomarkers, is the challenge.

Predictive Biology is developing Power Panel®, a collection of 2,000 genetically diverse mouse embryonic stem cell lines for drug discovery and regenerative medicine. Appropriate subsets of one to several hundred Power Panel cell lines are used to measure drug action on cell function across different genetic backgrounds, enabling discovery of physiologically relevant markers, genes, and pathways early in preclinical studies. Another benefit to Power Panel® screens is identification of stratified-response cell lines (e.g., high/mid/low responders) for extended testing.

Power Panel ES cell lines are superior to primary cells or immortalized cell lines because they are an inexhaustible renewable resource, can differentiate to many cell types of pharmacological interest, have normal karyotype and physiology, and can be genetically modified with reporters or humanized drug targets, knockouts or RNAi knockdowns.

Power Panel uses mouse instead of human ES cells.  Read More.