Fate Therapeutics Named One of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World by MIT's Technology Review

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Fate Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the Company was named as one of Technology Review's 2010 TR50, the publication's first annual list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world.  The 2010 TR50 companies span the fields of energy, computing, the Web, biomedicine, and materials and have been evaluated based on business model, strategies for deploying and scaling up its technologies and the likelihood of success.  Each company in the 2010 TR50 has excelled not only at inventing technology but also at using it to transform how we live and work.

"We are honored to be selected and recognized for our efforts in advancing important discoveries in stem cell biology to create new and better medicines for patients in need," said Paul Grayson, president and CEO of Fate Therapeutics.  "With the strong support of our Scientific Founders and academic and industry collaborators, we are committed to the reliable and efficient generation and differentiation of iPSCs for drug discovery and therapeutic development and leading the identification of small molecules and biologics that can modulate cell fate to develop innovative medicines."

Fate Therapeutics utilizes the most advanced proprietary reprogramming and differentiation technologies for generating cell types of interest to elucidate disease biology and identify targets for therapeutic intervention. The Company's intellectual property portfolio includes exclusive licenses from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research for foundational induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology invented by Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch and from The Scripps Research Institute for the protein and small molecule reprogramming breakthroughs of Dr. Sheng Ding.  The protein-based reprogramming breakthrough was honored as the Top Technology of 2009 by The Scientist, and the Company's iPSC technology received the 2009 North American Technology Innovation Award from Frost & Sullivan.

"In choosing the TR50, we picked companies with this year's most important inventions and breakthroughs. But we also selected companies that are successfully growing businesses and markets around innovative new products," said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review. "The TR50 list is our selection of companies that show the most impressive innovation in commercializing new technologies."

Because iPSCs have been shown to behave similarly to embryonic stem cells with the ability to differentiate into various cell types, such as cardiomyocytes, hepatocytes, neurons and pancreatic cells and can be created from any adult somatic cell, like a skin cell, iPSC technology has significant commercial and medical value.  For example, iPSCs can be used to assess drug toxicity across diverse genetic backgrounds, enable the development of disease model systems for basic research and drug discovery and may ultimately result in personalized cell therapies.  Fate Therapeutics is using iPSCs to recreate adult stem cell niche environments for the discovery of "stem cell modulator" compounds that act in vivo for therapeutic benefit.

About Technology Review, Inc.

Technology Review, Inc., an independent media company owned by MIT, is the authority on the future of technology, identifying emerging technologies and analyzing their impact for leaders. Technology Review's media properties include Technology Review magazine, the oldest technology magazine in the world (founded in 1899); the daily news website TechnologyReview.com; and events such as the annual EmTech@MIT Conference.

About Fate Therapeutics, Inc.

Fate Therapeutics is interrogating adult stem cell biology and applying induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to develop Stem Cell Modulators (SCMs), small molecule or biologic compounds that guide cell fate for therapeutic purposes.  The Company's award-winning, proprietary iPSC technology platform incorporates the most advanced viral, small molecule and protein reprogramming methods and offers a highly efficient, minimally invasive system to recapitulate human physiology for commercial-scale drug discovery and therapeutic use.  The Company's approach has broad therapeutic potential in areas such as regenerative medicine, hematological diseases, metastatic cancer, traumatic injury and degenerative diseases.  Fate Therapeutics is currently conducting a Phase 1b clinical trial of FT1050, a small molecule SCM designed to increase hematopoietic stem cell number and function in dual umbilical cord blood transplant recipients with hematologic malignancies, such as leukemia and lymphoma.  Fate Therapeutics is headquartered in San Diego, CA.  For more information, please visit http://www.fatetherapeutics.com.

SOURCE Fate Therapeutics, Inc.