Sydney biotech Apollo Life Sciences has signed a supply agreement with US giant Millipore to supply human Leukaemia Inhibitory Factor (hLIF) for resale in worldwide markets. LIF is a patented protein that plays a role in the growth and development of cells. Millipore is the exclusive worldwide supplier of human LIF, a cytokine that can be used to prevent stem cells from differentiating into more specialised cell types.

Apollo's human cell-expressed LIF may allow researchers to maintain stem cells in an undifferentiated state prior to transformation into specialised cells such as heart muscle cells.

Apollo will use its proprietary human cell-expressed (hcx) protein technology to produce human LIF for sale by Millipore under Apollo's hcx trademark. The company's first supply of hcx LIF to Millipore is scheduled for later this month.

Apollo's hcx LIF mimics endogenously-produced human LIF as it contains the same types of sugar modifications, the company said in a statement.

Such human-specific sugar modifications are not found on LIF proteins expressed from rodent or bacterial cells, it said.