The Niche
VCs consider routes to make reprogrammed cells into products
Posted by Monya Baker on behalf of Natalie DeWitt What do the top venture capitalists interested in investing in iPS cells consider the major hurdles on the road to viable clinical products? Today stem-cell scientists Deepak Srivastava and Shinya Yamanaka of the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco were joined by Beth Seidenberg of venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers to answer that question for an audience consisting mainly of investors. Yamanaka was reluctant to give a timetable for clinical application. Alternatives to viral integration as a means to make iPS cells are clearly on the way, he said, but