As part of the agreement, Application, the Technology Development Company of the Hebrew University will receive license fees, a research grant and royalties from future sales of the company's products
Application, the Research Development Company of the Hebrew University, announced today that it has signed a license agreement for the development and marketing of a series of technologies based on stem cells, with TheraCell Company in California, USA. TheraCell company will work to apply the technologies in an innovative field of medicine called Regenerative Medicine. One of the main goals of the company is the fusion of vertebrae in the spine using stem cells. The technologies are the result of research by a team of scientists led by Professor Dan Gazit from the Faculty of Dentistry at the Hebrew University.
The technologies include a unique gel enriched with oxygen, which aims to preserve the vitality of the transplanted stem cells and increase the production of bone tissue. This new method will be used, along with existing TheraCell technology, to build biological "scaffolds" designed to increase the efficiency of spinal fusion surgeries. The integrated product is recognized as a medical device, and therefore can go through accelerated approval processes.
"The innovative technologies developed by Prof. Gazit and his group are another example of the groundbreaking and creative research that is being carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem," said Yehuda Yarmat, Deputy Director General of Implementation. "The ability to ensure adequate oxygen supply to the cells may help not only in healing complicated fractures and the growth of bone-producing stem cells, but also in treatments that use other types of stem cells, as well as in the survival of engineered tissues and transplanted organs."
Spinal fusion is a surgical procedure used to fix two or more vertebrae, usually to prevent the pain caused by abnormal movement of the vertebrae. The procedure relies on bone tissue transplantation as well as the body's natural ability to grow new bone tissue. The current treatment requires the use of considerable amounts of bone from the patient himself, while the oxygen-enriched gel will significantly reduce the amount of bone graft required, and will also speed up and improve the fusion success rate.
Prof. Gazit's invention includes a special scaffold with a particularly high capacity for oxygen, the purpose of which is to increase the efficiency of the fusion by increasing the amount of oxygen in the operated area. Scaffolds derived from this technology will improve the level of oxidation and encourage the activity of stem cells and bone-building cells, known as osteoblasts. In preclinical experiments in rodents, the rate of fusion of vertebrae and bone fractures was accelerated and the level of survival of stem cells was significantly improved.
Rich Grant, President and CEO of TheraCell, stated, “We are extremely excited about the open of this unique technology and the possibilities that lie within it. The spine surgery market in the US is currently over $6 billion annually, and includes over 500,000 surgeries. With the help of this technology, we anticipate that we will be able to provide particularly attractive products to patients and insurance companies, because they will significantly improve the results of expensive vertebral fusion surgeries as well as hospitalization times, thus significantly reducing the cost of treatment."
In addition, the agreement includes innovative and effective methods for extracting and treating stem cells originating from the patients themselves. TheraCell company will continue to develop these methods for producing autologous stem cells, which were also developed by Prof. Gazit's group, and in the future will use them in combination with an injectable or implantable version of the oxidized scaffold. In this way, it will be possible to develop an injectable treatment for the rehabilitation of the spine. Furthermore, TheraCell intends to develop a revolutionary device that will be used by clinics and hospitals to isolate and process stem cells from the patients themselves, based on Prof. Gazit's inventions. This "mobile laboratory" will allow widespread use of the oxidized gel that will include stem cells and will be inserted into the body as an implant or by injection.
