Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics (NSDQ:BCLI) said today that it landed a $2.1 million grant from the Israel Innovation Authority. The funds are slated to support the development of Brainstorm’s NurOwn mesenchymal stem cell-based platform for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS. This is the 10th year that Brainstorm has won grant support from the Israeli office […]
Stem Cells
ViaCyte looks to cell replacement therapy to cure Type I diabetes
ViaCyte said today that it will begin clinical trials of its novel islet cell replacement therapy in development as a potential cure for Type I diabetes, after landing regulatory wins from the FDA and Health Canada. The company’s PEC-Direct candidate delivers stem cell-derived pancreatic progenitor cells in a device that is designed to enable direct […]
Engineered tissue could eliminate radiation for bone marrow transplants
University of California San Diego engineers have created artificial bone tissue that could eliminate the need for radiation before bone marrow transplants. Shyni Varghese, a bioengineering professor at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, led a team to develop a bone-like implant to eliminate the pre-treatment radiation that kills stem cells in a patient’s bone […]
Magenta raises $50m, inks partnership with Novartis for stem cell transplant drugs
Magenta Therapeutics said today that it closed a $50 million Series B round and licensed a clinical-stage program from Novartis (NYSE:NVS) to advance its stem cell transplantation platform. The company also inked a partnership deal with Be The Match BioTherapies. Google’s venture arm, GV, led the financing round and was joined by existing investors, including […]
Study: Gamida Cell’s NiCord cell graft yields fewer infections, shorter hospital stays
Gamida Cell said today that its NiCord cell graft produces fewer infections, shorter hospital stays and shorter time to engraftment compared to standard umbilical cord blood transplantation. The company’s work was published in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. “Our results indicate that rapid hematopoietic recovery from Gamida Cell’s NiCord transplantation approach is associated with clinical benefit. […]
Researchers identify signal that could speed up healing
Researchers from the University of Southern California identified the signal that triggers stem cells to take action after an injury and showed how it could be used as a therapy to accelerate the body’s healing process. “Our research shows that by priming the body before an injury, you can speed the process of tissue repair and […]
Frequency raises $32m in Series A for hearing loss therapy
Frequency Therapeutics said today that it closed a $32 million Series A round, led by CoBro Ventures. Morningside Ventures, Emigrant Capital Corp., Korean Investment Partnership, Alexandria Real Estate Equities and other groups also invested in the round. The company has developed a proprietary combination of small molecule drugs that they plan to inject in the ear, […]
How the CellMist SkinGun heals: a Q&A with RenovaCare’s CEO
Heather Thompson, Senior Editor When Thomas Bold joined RenovaCare in 2013, he was already familiar with its potentially groundbreaking technology. Bold had served as StemCell Systems CEO in Berlin for many years. He was involved in the development of the CellMist and SkinGun – the platform technologies for RenovaCare Inc. The technologies represent a shift in thinking about wound care, […]
3D model of female reproductive system could help test drugs for efficacy, safety
In January last year, the National Institutes of Health issued a new requirement for grant funding in basic science: Researchers must discuss how gender as a biological variable will impact their research. Teresa Woodruff, director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Northwestern University, told Drug Delivery Business News that this helped support their effort to develop a model that […]
Gamida Cell wins additional EMA orphan drug designation for NiCord
Gamida Cell said today that the European Medicines Agency granted its NiCord cell graft an additional orphan drug designation as a treatment for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, or bone marrow transplantation. The treatment is a graft derived from umbilical cord blood which has been expanded and enriched with stem and progenitor cells, according to the […]
