Genea Biocells Builds Stem-Cell Facility in California

Australian stem cell company Genea Biocells is expanding its operations to the US with the opening of a new facility in San Diego, California. The office and laboratory space in the Torrey Pines Science Park will accommodate the company's cell and culture media manufacturing, research services, and R&D, and is expected to be fully operational by September 2015.

The new site will house over  $2 million worth of equipment, including robotics and instrumentation for high-throughput/high-content screening, all of which is instrumental to the company's chemical biology approach and the research services it provides. Genea Biocells' vice-presidents of chemistry and of business development are already based in the US; the company will retain a small team of scientists in Sydney, primarily for the derivation and banking of new human pluripotent stem cell lines.

"The new facility not only places us directly into our main market, the USA, but also in the midst of one of the largest biotechnology clusters in the world," Genea Biocells general manager, Uli Schmidt, said in a press release. "Being in California also offers a new range of funding opportunities that we will explore to support our R&D programs on neuromuscular diseases."

Source: Genea