Généthon, a not-for profit French biotherapy laboratory, has announced a collaboration with the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in the US to work on the preclinical development of a gene therapy for myotubular myopathy.
Scientists from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US have reported transforming human embryonic stem cells into a type of neuron that plays a critical role in memory. The findings have been published in Stem Cells.
Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts have reported finding a regulator of gene activity that can instruct epidermal stem cells to grow or stop growing, a finding that may have use for cancer as well as regenerative medicine.
The Renovo Group Plc is reducing its staff and the size of its board of directors in the wake of the failure of a Phase 3 trial of its wound-healing product, Juvista. Recruitment is also being stopped for a trial of a second tissue product.
TiGenix NV of Belgium and Cellerix SA of Spain have agreed to merge creating what is expected to be the largest cell therapy and regenerative medicine company in Europe. It is the most significant corporate transaction in the field of regenerative medicine since the December 2010 alliance between Cephalon Inc and Mesoblast Ltd of Australia
Fate Therapeutics Inc, the San Diego, California-based stem cell company, has announced the departure of its president and chief executive officer, Paul Grayson. Mr Grayson is leaving to form a new company, according to Fate.
Three Dutch organisations are allocating more than €3 million to a project that will develop a method for culturing stem cells for transplants in leukaemia patients. The study will also develop imaging technology to monitor these treatments.
The European Medicines Agency has issued new advice on the procedures that companies should follow in developing stem cell products. The advice is contained in a paper on the agency’s website, www.ema.europa.eu. (EMA/CAT/571134/2009).
Eli Lilly and Company has entered into a three-year research agreement with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to explore a new strategy for regenerating beta cells in people with Type 1 diabetes.
Despite the many achievements of modern cancer therapies, one uncertainty continues to haunt the industry. This is knowing whether a patient who has apparently been treated successfully with chemotherapy or a targeted antibody therapy will nonetheless experience a relapse years after a treatment has finished