DefiniGEN provide a wide range of terminally differentiated human cell products including mature hepatocytes, pancreatic cells, intestinal organoids and cholangiocytes derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to the life science and drug discovery sectors, using our proprietary OptiDIFF platform.
The OptiDIFF protocol has been developed over many years by Prof Ludovic Vallier’s group at Cambridge University and has been widely published upon, and allows us to generate large quantities of terminally differentiated, phenotypically relevant human cells for target validation or screening. It allows us to robustly achieve good quality human like cells at scale to support medium throughput screening initiatives.

We use this same technology to generate a range of unique innovative human cell disease models. We can employ one of two routes to achieve this; firstly we can take fibroblasts from a diseased donor, reprogram to iPS then differentiate into large quantities of diseased human cells which would have a complete donor genetic background. Secondly we can use a healthy wild type iPSC line and employ CRISPR to edit the genome and generate many different functional disease models. Examples include NAFLD (PNPLA3), Alpha1-antitrypsin disorder, GSD1a, familial hypercholesterolemia, amyloidosis, Wilson’s disease, Gaucher’s disease or Crigler Najar in hepatocytes. In pancreatic cells we offer models for MODY3 (monogenic diabetes – HNF1alpha), neonatal diabetes (KCNJ11) and cystic fibrosis (dF508) but the flexibility of CRISPR allows us to knock in or out a wide range of genes to generate a comprehensive suite of diseased model cell products.