A Phase 1 study of 18 patients with severe osteoarthritis of the knee has shown that a single injection of stem cells derived from the patients’ own adipose tissue was safe and appeared to offer relief from pain.
A startup company founded by Oxford University professors is making waves in the stem cell community because it has technology that promises to control in vivo the destination of cells that can repair and replace tissues affected by disease. The technology will be used to create small molecule drugs that can activate repair mechanisms that already exist in the body to treat major age-related diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, heart failure and macular degeneration.
Japanese scientists have reported growing three-dimensional skin tissue in the laboratory and successfully transplanting it into mice where it connected with nerve and muscle tissue allowing the skin to function normally.
Gene and cell therapy executives, meeting in Stockholm in early April, spoke positively about the sector in the wake of the European Medicines Agency’s positive opinion for Strimvelis, a gene therapy for severe combined immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase deficiency (ADA-SCID), an ultra-rare disease.
A new gene therapy developed by the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy together with GlaxoSmithKline Plc, has been given a positive review by the European Medicines Agency. If approved by the European Commission, it will only be the second gene-based product to reach the market in the west.
Milan-based Genenta Science, which has an experimental gene therapy for delivering interferon to tumours, has signed a multi-year manufacturing agreement with MolMed SpA in preparation for the start of clinical trials of a gene therapy for multiple myeloma.
Following a review of its staff disciplinary board, the Karolinska Institutet (KI) announced on 23 March that it had dismissed Paolo Macchiarini, a surgeon who is the focus of an investigation over alleged misconduct involving a novel trachea replacement procedure.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc has signed an agreement with a service company in Germany to gain access to technology for industrialising cell and gene therapies. The two parties will also discover new chimeric antigen-receptor T (CAR T) cell therapies.
Scientists at Michigan State University have described a new type of stem cell following laboratory experiments with mice. They say this could lead to new tools for studying birth defects and other reproductive problems.
The Swedish government announced on 3 March that it is asking a nominating committee to propose new board members for the Karolinska Institutet – the latest twist in a long-running investigation into the research and clinical activities of the visiting professor and surgeon Paolo Macchiarini.