Among the three applications of platelet rich plasma (PRP), bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC), and autologous fat concentration), PRP has the greatest market potential for current and future treatments. Bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) represents the next greatest market potential, followed by autologous fat concentration. [Read more…]
Improving Access to Donor- and Disease-Specific Stem Cells – Interview with Alec Lee of Extem Bioscience
This is an interview with Alec Lee, Head of Business Development at Extem Bioscience, an innovative stem cell company that has developed a new device and process to purify and expand adult stem cells in greater numbers.
The company is focused on the isolation, rapid purification, and expansion of adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Enjoy these insights into Extem’s future strategies and directions.
Interview with Alec Lee of Extem Bioscience
Cade Hildreth: How and when was Extem founded?
Alec Lee: Extem was founded in 2014 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and now based in San Francisco, California.
Cade Hildreth: How was your team of founders formed?
Alec Lee: The founders – Mardonn, Darson, and Alec – were all alumni of the Biotechnology Program at the University of British Columbia. Mardonn Chua (CEO) conceived the idea as a researcher at Columbia University, as a way to enable his lab to regularly work with primary stem cells.
Darson (CSO) is responsible for experimental design and process development. His experience working as a QA and QC Inspector in industry enables the team to uphold the level of product quality customers expect.
Alec Lee is a Harvard Business School student and oversees the business development and strategic play of the venture.
Mike Bowles (Machine Learning) builds our learning algorithms. He was the co-founder of Com 21, iBeam, and was professor of Machine Learning – Control and Estimation Theory at MIT.
Cade Hildreth: What is the core technology on which Extem is based?
Alec Lee: The core technology is based on two parts – first, the rapid purification and expansion of adult stem cells without genetic manipulation, and second, the development of analytical models of stem cell differentiation based on machine learning algorithms.
On the production end, Extem has developed a new device and process to purify and expand adult stem cells, specifically MSCs at greater numbers. This allows us to provide researchers in academia and industry with improved access to donor- and disease-specific stem cells.
Cade Hildreth: How does Extem differ from other mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) companies?
Alec Lee: Extem’s technology is comprised of a production core and computational biology core. While traditional MSC (and other stem cell) companies offer only marginal improvements in stem cell growth, we are the first stem cell company developing predictive models of stem cell differentiation – i.e. being able to predict, to a certain degree, how well a donor or patient’s cells form into bone or cartilage tissue.
We believe that our two-core technology provides a more robust approach to evaluating the efficacy of MSCs not just for basic research, but also for pre-clinical drug development. At the outset, our system provides our clients with therapeutic-centric data.
Cade Hildreth: Have you filed for or are you pursuing intellectual property (IP) positions?
Alec Lee: Yes, the company has filed a provisional patent on our production process. We are currently developing IP for our machine learning systems.
Cade Hildreth: What are your near-term (3-5 year) goals?
Alec Lee: We have three main goals in the near term: first, to expand our bank of stem cells to 100 donors, second, to complete the next version of our machine learning algorithms for osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation, and third, to work with clinicians in assessing the predictive power of our algorithms in stem cell-based therapeutic applications.
Cade Hildreth: Do you anticipate seeking out partnerships or investors for Extem Bioscience?
Alec Lee: Yes, we have raised venture capital to fund initial operations and anticipate raising further investment for future R&D.
Cade Hildreth: Do you foresee yourselves staying a MSC-specific company or expanding into other stem cell types?
Alec Lee: Expanding to different stem cell types (e.g. hematopoietic stem cells and even induced pluripotent stem cells) is on our timeline. We have specifically developed our tech to be tractable for other stem cell types.
Cade Hildreth: Thank you for the honor of doing this interview and for sharing insights into your innovative MSC products.
To learn more about Extem Biosciences, visit www.ExtemBio.com or connect with Alec Lee on LinkedIn.
Tisch MSRCNY to Launch Phase II Stem Cell Trial for Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Dedicated to identifying the cause of multiple sclerosis (MS), the Tisch MS Research Center of New York was formally launched in 2006. However, it grew out of the MS center at the Neurological Institute of New York of the Columbia University Medical Center, a group which Dr. Saud Sadiq joined in 1992. [Read more…]
Transplanting Neural Stem Cells for Therapeutic Purposes – Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS, and More
While research around neural transplantation was initially viewed as a research method for understanding neural development, it has since gained attention as a therapeutic intervention.
Neural Stem Cell Transplant
In this article:
- Can Stem Cells Repair Brain Damage?
- Current Treatment for CNS Disorders
- Recent Brain Stem Cell Research
- Future of Neural Stem Cell Research
Can Stem Cells Repair Brain Damage?
Stem cells are now being explored as a potential treatment for a range of chronic neurological diseases and acute CNS injuries, including:
- Parkinson’s
- Stroke
- Spinal Cord Injury
- Alzheimer’s
- Other
- Huntington’s
- Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
- Epilepsy
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
- Schizophrenia
- Cerebral Palsy
How the U.S. and E.U. are Incorporating Neural Stem Cells into Neurotoxicity Assays
An important application for neural stem and progenitor cells is their use in neural toxicology assessments.
The motivation to develop alternative methods for assessing neurotoxicity has been facilitated by recent legislation in both Europe and the United States. This legislation has focused on controlling the risk of chemical effects on human health by prescribing the increased testing of chemicals and chemical products to predict their potential hazards, with emphasis on the use of emerging technologies and in vitro testing systems. This type of approach has been proposed by the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents in the publication “Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-first Century: A Vision and a Strategy.”1
Additionally, and in response to a considerable rise in the incidence of neurodevelopmental disease in children and the large resource requirements of traditional methods, the push for new testing options for neurotoxicity has recently focused on developmental neurotoxicity testing (DNT). Workgroups in the United States and Europe have set forth proposals for the systematic evaluation of alternative methods for DNT, including the use of in vitro and non-mammalian test systems.2
For both adult and developmental neurotoxicity testing, the move away from whole-animal testing is dependent upon scientific advances in neurobiology that demonstrate the molecular and cellular basis of nervous system function. Then, increased emphasis needs to be placed on developing in vitro models based on human cell systems. While there are a number of human neuronal cell lines available, human neural stem cells show particular promise.3
Recently, neural stem cells of human origin have been immortalized to create clonal neural stem cell lines.4 Several human stem cell cultures that can be differentiated in mature cultures of neurons and glia are also commercially available. As assays for neurotoxicity using cells of human origin are compared with more widely used neural cell cultures of animal origin, it will become clear if there is a predictive improvement.
In the meantime, there will be market appetite for the development of standardized neurotoxicity assays using both human and animal neural stem cell lines.
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Footnotes:
1 National Research Council. “Toxicity testing in the twenty-first century: a vision and a strategy.” The National Academies Press. Available at: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11970. Accessed January 15, 2016.
2 Lein, P, Locke, P, Goldberg, A. “Meeting report: alternatives for developmental neurotoxicity testing. Enviro. Health Perspect 2007; 115, 764-768 2007.
3Mundy W. “Non-Animal Methods for Toxicity Testing. “Alternative Methods for Neurotoxicity”. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Neurotoxicology Division (B105-06). AltTox.org. Available at: http://www.alttox.org/ttrc/toxicity-tests/neurotoxicity/way-forward/. Accessed January 16, 2016.
4 De Filipis L, et al. “Immortalization of Human Neural Stem Cells with the c-Myc Mutant T58A.” Available at: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003310. Accessed January 16, 2016.
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