Houston and Calabasas Hills, 12th December 2006 (MOREL)- Stem Cell Innovations, Inc. (SCLL.OB) and The ALS Association, a non-profit health organization dedicated to finding a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), announced today a two-year discovery alliance. Stem Cell Innovations (SCI) will develop human motor neuron models based on its proprietary PluriCell(TM) technology that can be used for high-throughput screening. Subsequently, the cell models will be used by alliance partner
Galapagos to discover novel drug targets for ALS. Under the terms of the agreement, SCI will receive 400,000 Euros ($512,000) from The ALS Association, upon completion of certain milestones. In addition, SCI has the option to further develop certain cell-therapy applications based on results identified in the program.
"The human motor neuron cultures derived from our PluriCells will form the basis of this exciting alliance," said Stem Cell Innovations CEO Dr. James Kelly. "We are very pleased to be collaborating with The ALS Association and Galapagos on this discovery project."
"The unique ability provided by SCI to screen human motor neurons at large scale will open new approaches to developing medicines that may stop ALS," said Dr. Lucie Bruijn, Science Director and Vice President at The ALS Association. "We see this alliance with SCI as an important initiative within the ALS Association´s mission to find a cure for and improve living with ALS."
Funding from The ALS Association´s translational program, Translational Research Advancing Therapy for ALS (TREAT ALS), is the largest to date focused on drug development.
TREAT ALS seeks new avenues to therapeutics and puts into place a clinical trials process that will be ready when any new candidates are identified. Several pilot clinical trials of existing candidates are already underway with TREAT ALS funding.
Stem Cell Innovations recently disclosed that it has produced multiple lines of human pluripotent stem cells. These PluriCell lines can be cultured without the use of feeder layers and can be efficiently differentiated into multiple cell-types with the potential to aid in drug discovery and development.
PluriCells(TM) are a type of pluripotent stem cell isolated from fetal tissue, which 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).
"The human motor neuron cultures derived from our PluriCells will form the basis of this exciting alliance," said Stem Cell Innovations CEO Dr. James Kelly. "We are very pleased to be collaborating with The ALS Association and Galapagos on this discovery project."
"The unique ability provided by SCI to screen human motor neurons at large scale will open new approaches to developing medicines that may stop ALS," said Dr. Lucie Bruijn, Science Director and Vice President at The ALS Association. "We see this alliance with SCI as an important initiative within the ALS Association´s mission to find a cure for and improve living with ALS."
Funding from The ALS Association´s translational program, Translational Research Advancing Therapy for ALS (TREAT ALS), is the largest to date focused on drug development.
TREAT ALS seeks new avenues to therapeutics and puts into place a clinical trials process that will be ready when any new candidates are identified. Several pilot clinical trials of existing candidates are already underway with TREAT ALS funding.
Stem Cell Innovations recently disclosed that it has produced multiple lines of human pluripotent stem cells. These PluriCell lines can be cultured without the use of feeder layers and can be efficiently differentiated into multiple cell-types with the potential to aid in drug discovery and development.
PluriCells(TM) are a type of pluripotent stem cell isolated from fetal tissue, which 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).
