In the human body, the liver is the largest internal organ, which carries out over 500 vital functions, including metabolic, exocrine and endocrine functions. The liver is essential for survival. Without it, a human can only stay alive for up to 24 hours. Even though liver dialysis can be used short term, at present, there is no way to compensate for the long-term absence of liver function. Disorders of the liver, including liver failure and end-stage liver diseases, are responsible for a huge number of deaths around the world and are a major burden on the health care system. Although liver transplantation has been successfully used for treating severe liver disorders, its efficacy is limited and has connected to many complications such as infection or rejection. Liver transplantation is also limited due to shortage of available donor organs and lifelong use of immunosuppression in recipients. On the other hand, cell-based therapy, such as those based on hepatocytes, is believed to hold a great promise for treating these severe diseases.
 
Hepatocytes, the principal cell type in the liver, are responsible for metabolic function and regeneration of the adult liver. Along with biliary epithelial cells, hepatocytes are derived from the embryonic endoderm. Human hepatocytes can be used for modeling and understanding liver diseases, drug efficacy and toxicity testing, and cell replacement therapy. However, primary human hepatocytes are scarce and, despite their ability to efficiently proliferate in vivo, cannot be expanded in vitro. Thus, there is a continuing unmet need for an unlimited source of human hepatocytes or hepatocyte-like cells.
 
HepatoScience, Inc. aims at developing novel methods and optimizing established methods of generating hepatocytes, such as ES cell-derived hepatocytes, iHep cells and induced hepatic stem cells (iHepSCs). With continuous works from years of experiences, Hepatoscience, Inc. hopes to establish a new system for generating human hepatocytes or hepatocyte-like cells.