JERUSALEM, Nov.12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Hadasit Bio-Holdings Ltd. (OTC: HADSY, TASE: HDST) a publicly traded portfolio of biotech companies, all based on intellectual property developed by the Hadassah University Hospital, Israel's foremost medical research center, announced that its portfolio company CellCure NeuroSciences and BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX) have entered into a share purchase agreement through which BioTime will provide Cell Cure with $3.5 million of BioTime stock in exchange for shares of Cell Cure that will increase BioTime's ownership interest in Cell Cure to 62.6%. With this investment, Hadasit Bio's ownership will go from 23% to 21.3%. Cell Cure will use the proceeds from the sale of the BioTime shares initially to fund the development of Cell Cure's lead product, OpRegen, a cell replacement treatment for age-related macular degeneration. Plans for the development of OpRegen include filing an application to commence human clinical trials in 2013. Under the share purchase agreement, BioTime will initially issue to Cell Cure 906,735 BioTime common shares. Cell Cure may, from time to time, sell some or all of the BioTime shares it receives and will use proceeds from the sale of the shares to fund its development program for OpRegen and for the development … Continue reading →

Public release date: 12-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Christine Beyaert cbeyaert@ontariogenomics.ca 416-673-6597 Ontario Genomics Institute TORONTO, ON, Nov. 12, 2012 The Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI), through its Pre-Commercialization Business Development Fund (PBDF), has invested in Toronto-based Tissue Regenerative Therapeutics (TRT), a company that aims to use umbilical mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to treat a variety of serious medical conditions, such as arthritis, diabetes and Crohn's disease, to name a few. TRT will use this investment to conduct studies required to apply for approval to initiate human clinical trials. MSCs are cells that can differentiate into musculoco-skeletal tissues such as bone, cartilage and muscle. Their ability to generate replacement tissues and affect cellular processes such as inflammation makes them an exciting potential therapy for a variety of conditions. Unlike other cells, MSCs can be used without the need for tissue matching and can be accumulated in large numbers. TRT has developed new methods to extract MSCs from umbilical cords, eliminating many of the challenges related to MSC harvesting from other tissue sources. "Stem cell research is a promising area of biomedical research and it could have significant impact for people suffering from many conditions," said Mark Poznansky, President … Continue reading →

CHICAGO and SAN DIEGO, Nov. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- HumanZyme and PacificGMP today announced a partnership to manufacture clinical grade, authentic human growth factors and cytokines. The companies will make available for the first time, a safe and authentic source of these proteins to regenerative medicine developers to change stem cells into differentiated cell types that will be used to treat various diseases or injuries. The partnership combines HumanZyme's HumanKineTM growth factors and cytokines with PacificGMP's extensive experience and expertise in manufacturing GMP-certified recombinant human proteins intended for human clinical use. Growth factors and cytokines, which are proteins, provide researchers a means to convert stem cells into specific cell types such as heart cells or neurons. Previous stem cell research is now being translated from the laboratory to regenerative medicine therapies to repair damaged cells from traumatic injuries such as heart attacks or to restore cellular functions that have been lost or are missing in diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's Disease. While growth factors and cytokines are already available to stem cell researchers, the regenerative medicine community currently lacks access to many clinical grade growth factors and cytokines that are needed to ensure that human cellular therapy trials are … Continue reading →

SOURCE: VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. Novel Human Stem Cell-Based Bioassay Based on VistaGen's Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube Platform SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Nov 13, 2012) - VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. (OTCBB: VSTA) (OTCQB: VSTA), a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism screening, today announced a significant advance in its development of LiverSafe 3D, a human liver cell-based bioassay system designed to predict liver toxicity and drug metabolism issues in connection with the Company's drug rescue activities. Shawn K. Singh, VistaGen's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "As we have done with CardioSafe 3D, our stem cell-based bioassay system for predictive heart toxicity screening and drug rescue, we are developing LiverSafe 3D to change the game in drug development -- to generate clinically predictive liver toxicology and liver metabolism data at the front end of the drug development process, long before standard animal and human testing." VistaGen's LiverSafe 3D, together with optimized culture protocols and without the need for any purification, is now capable of producing differentiated populations of cells containing greater than 70% albumin-positive human hepatocytes (liver cells), and greater than 40% of these hepatocytes express the mature CYP3A4 drug metabolizing enzyme. … Continue reading →