Rapid Production of Human Mast Cells

Title	Rapid Production of Human Mast Cells
Acronym	MASTFAST
Website	http://www.crm.ed.ac.uk/people/elaine-dzierzak
Start date	2017-09-01
End date	2019-02-28
Sponsor	European Research Council - Proof of Concept (ERC-PoC)

Associated cell lines

• CENSOi005-A (CENSOi245, FB76R2c5)
• RBi001-A (fb101, RB101)
• WAe001-A (H1, WA01)

Project Description

MAST CELLs are the major effectors of allergic responses (skin, lung, etc) and are implicated in disorders that include migraine headache pain, hayfever, anaphylaxsis, mastocytosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, endometriosis pain and neuroinflammation1. Current knowledge of mast cell regulation in health and disease is very limited. Drug discoveries/new treatment strategies are hampered due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient numbers of mast cells. In this ERC PoC 768728 MASTFAST, the team (DZIERZAK, U of Edinburgh and MEE, CENSO Biotechnologies Ltd (formerly Roslin Cell Labs) will translate a ground-breaking result obtained within ERC AdG 341096 to the rapid marketable production of human MAST CELLs for much-needed research on mast cell differentiation and dysfunction & drug discovery. We will optimize and scale-up our MAST CELL methodology, and to produce fully functional HUMAN MAST CELLs. SPECIFIC AIMS: • Generation & comparative characterization of GATA2Venus human iPSC • Optimize and scale-up MAST CELL production from in vitro cultured GATA2Venus human iPSC • Validate function of iPSC-derived human MAST CELLS by degranulation screen • Quality control and storage optimization for potential market preparation • Exploitation of MAST CELL methodology by Pharma/Biotech for high throughput drug-discovery and studies of MAST CELL differentiation and dysfunction.