Combining pioneering iPSC technology and patented live cell bioimaging, LumiSTAR is opening up exciting new possibilities in the treatment of various diseases and the development of innovative new drugs
- Share via
Taiwan’s biotech industry is living its golden days, and LumiSTAR is certainly one of its shining examples. It all started at Oxford University, when LumiSTAR co-founders Yu-Fen Chang, CEO, and Min-Wen Chung, COO, were working on the development of a novel bioimaging technology for drug screening and clinical research.
Realizing its significant market potential in preclinical research for drug discovery, they returned to Taiwan and founded LumiSTAR, which has since focused on developing its own patented real-time cell detection technology for drug screening (LumiRDT).
Later, LumiSTAR began to combine this technology with induced pluripotent stem cells, iPSCs, enabling it to acquire more personalized and accurate drug targeting information, resulting in more realistic cell responses to drugs and thus potentially more effective treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as chronic kidney disease and cancer.
However, these impressive breakthroughs are just the beginning. Last year, LumiSTAR launched its high-performance platforms for high-throughput screening and cellular analysis in partnership with California-based Molecular Devices, one of the world’s leading providers of high-content imaging acquisition and automated workstations. It also partnered with Panasonic for automated iPSC cell manufacturing.
With this new automated iPSC technology and its strong partnerships with Taiwanese CDMO companies, LumiSTAR is now able to provide customized end-to-end solutions to its customers, further cementing its place at the forefront of Taiwan’s regenerative medicine industry. “We have a really robust center because we have our own iPSC technology and the right partners if we want to scale it up. This way, we can offer total automation solutions to our target customers,” Yu-Fen Chang assures.
This year, LumiSTAR’s success and a strategic partnership with a Japanese and an American company have enabled it to open a second office in Taiwan’s capital, in the Taipei Bioinnovation Park, which will be the first iPSC Pilot Center combined with automation in Asia.
In addition, in mid-October 2024 LumiSTAR opened a subsidiary office in Los Angeles, which is expected to serve as a platform for future collaborations with U.S. pharma, hospitals for clinical trials and CRO companies to license its technology.
The company also plans to IPO in a couple of years. In the meantime, we are certain that LumiSTAR will keep busy developing its innovative technology, because as its CEO confidently says, “It takes a long time to bring a successful therapy to market, but we believe this kind of technology will change the world.”