Retinal degeneration
research & testing platform

Age-related Macular Degeneration

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Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is an ophthalmologic disorder that causes irreversible partial vision loss or, for the worst cases, blindness.

AMD is the first cause of vision loss after 50 years old ; prevalence is about 25 % for people older than 75. Currently affecting 200 million people worldwide, it is estimated that AMD will reach nearly 400 million people worldwide in 2040.
There are two types of AMD : dry, that results from degeneration of retinal cells and wet (or exudative) that results from abnormal growth of blood vessels in the macula area.

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While treatments exist for the exudative form, mainly anti-VEGF antibodies (ranibizumab and bevacizumab), the atrophic form, which affects about 80-90% of individuals with AMD, doesn't have any satisfactory therapeutic options to prevent vision loss (Schmier et al., 2006)

In order to meet patient's expecta-tions, Phenocell offers R&D outsourcing services to screen small molecule librairies and test active compound using an exclusive Dry AMD model based on iPSC technology.

WHY iPSC-derived RPE cells ?

iPSC-derived retinal pigmented epithelial cells display all the key phenotypic and functional charac-teristics of primary human RPE cells. Unlike available cell lines, PCi-RPE display a normal karyotype and answer to several key causes of AMD (oxidative stress, blue light, etc.). Due to their high genomic stability, their availability in almost unlimited quanti-ties and their high level of inter-batch reproducibility, iPSC-derived RPE cells currently represent the most robust and relevant tool for your drug screening campaigns and Hit/Lead validation.

High-throughput screening services for
dry AMD research & testing

Identify new pharmaceutical active ingredients with our selection of innovative high-throughput bioassays on iPSC-derived retinal pigment epithelial cells.

Take advantage of the characteristics of a primoculture with the benefits of a cell line using iPSC-derived cells:

high genomic stability
available in unlimited quantities
unique batch-to-batch reproducibility

iPSC-derived cells are the most relevant model for HTS studies on human cells !

Your iPSC-derived cells screening campaign

Starting from 4500€/96wp

NEW ! Learn more about our AMD drug discovery platform

A unique in vitro dry AMD model
with the characteristics of primocultures
and the advantages of cell lines

Phenocell's dry AMD model is based on the use of iPSC-RPE cells from multiple donors:

Human iPSC-RPE cells differentiated from healthy donors
Human iPSC-RPE cells differentiated from AMD patients with risk alleles

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PCi-RPE cells are fully characterized:

Typical pigmented and polygonal morphology
Expression of key markers
(e.g. MITF, ZO-1, PMEL17)
High purity
Outer retinal barrier resistance

iPCS-retinal pigmented epihtelial cells characterization.jpg

Our iPSC-RPE model is available from 6 wp down to 96 wp

A2E (N-retinyl-N-retinylidene ethanolamine)

Blue light

Cell stress & degeneration

Phenocell's dry AMD model is based on chronic A2E low concentration treatment combined to blue light irradiation of iPSC-derived RPE cells to ideallly reproduce pathological conditions.