Houston TX, USA and Enschede, The Netherlands - October 3rd, 2006 - Stem Cell Innovations, Inc. (SCLL.OB) announced today that the Company has initiated a collaboration with the University of Twente (the Netherlands) to explore the bone forming properties of PluriCells(TM). Under the material transfer agreement, the University of Twente will get access to Stem Cell Innovations' (SCI) proprietary human pluripotent stem cell technology and know-how. In return SCI will receive a nonexclusive license to intellectual property generated with the PluriCells.
"The team of professor van Blitterswijk is one of the world's leading academic groups in the study of stem cell derived bone and cartilage formation. This former IsoTis in-house orthobiology research group has developed a comprehensive set of robust in vitro and in vivo models in which the PluriCells will be tested", said Stem Cell Innovations CEO Dr. James Kelly. "SCI is impressed that their science is very application driven, with van Blitterswijk as founder of several biotech companies, including IsoTis, where he was CEO".
"We are very pleased to work with the PluriCells provided by Stem Cell Innovations", said Prof. Dr. Clemens van Blitterswijk. "SCI has developed a unique cell culture system that makes culturing of human pluripotent stem cells much more straightforward. I expect that our stem cell research team, headed by dr. Jan de Boer, will extrapolate recent results with murine stem cells to human bone tissue engineering using PluriCells".
Stem Cell Innovations recently disclosed it has produced multiple lines of human pluripotent stem cells. These PluriCell lines can be efficiently cultured in tissue culture plates without the use of feeder layers and can be efficiently differentiated into multiple cell-types, having the potential to aid in drug discovery and development.
PluriCells(TM) are a type of pluripotent stem cells isolated from fetal tissue that have the ability to become all cell types of the body. Because they are developed from fetal germ cells, not viable embryos, they are eligible to be used in any NIH funded laboratory. Stem cells derived from fetal germ cells were explicitly excluded from the Presidential ban by the Department of Health and Human Services guidance document of March 19, 2002, that laid out what type of stem cells could and could not be used in Federally funded research (for the actual document see: http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/stemcell.pdf ).
About Stem Cell Innovations, Inc. SCI is a cell biology company with facilities in Scotch Plains, N.J., Houston, TX and in Leiden, the Netherlands. Stem Cell Innovations proprietary, human pluripotent stem cells, known as PluriCells, have the potential to aid in drug discovery, toxicology, and cell therapy. Stem Cell Innovations is in the process of making its patented pluripotent cell lines, which are eligible for federal funding in the U.S., widely available to universities and other not-for-profit institutions to rapidly advance stem cell research.
Stem Cell Innovations is positioned to become a leading provider of toxicology testing and discovery systems for the pharmaceutical, chemical, and nutraceutical industries around the world. The development of the proprietary PluriCell technology greatly expands the Company's currently marketed C3A human liver cell-based toxicology offerings.
Additional information is available at www.stemcellinnovations.com .
Contact Stem Cell Innovations: Dr. James H. Kelly, +1 281-679-7900 or Ivo Piest, +31 71 711 8010 (Europe)
PluriCells is a Trademark of Stem Cell Innovations, Inc.
About University of Twente The University of Twente is an entrepreneurial research university. It was founded in 1961 and offers education and research in areas ranging from public policy studies and applied physics to biomedical technology.
BMTI is the institute of the University of Twente where all research activities in the (bio) medical field are brought together. BMTI projects contribute to improving the quality of life of human beings, by restoring body performance whenever there is a need to, because of loss of function through diseases, accidents or more age-related deterioration of human functioning.
In the multidisciplinary research of BMTI eleven different groups of the University participate by combining their technical expertise with the know-how and day-to-day experiences of (bio-) medical practice. Depending on the problem, BMTI's research may focus on various issues from (early) diagnostics through medical intervention, cure, care and more rehabilitation related activities.
Through a long history of biomedical research in the University of Twente, BMTI is recognized world-wide as a leading institute in this multidisciplinary field of science where engineering concepts and methods are employed to solve and understand medical and biological problems.
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