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Here is more about what ACTC does and is doing-price has come down quite bit to around .20.
With the recent swearing in of new President Barack Obama there is much anticipation that the U.S. government will be more supportive of embryonic stem cell (ESC) research. In our first BioWorld Q&A feature, we spoke with Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology and chief scientific advisor for Worcester, Mass.-based International Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine International, a recently formed joint venture between ACT and CHA Biotech.
Workforce Management: At the Heart of the Contact Center Learn more, download free white paper.
The Modern Contact Center and Workforce Management�s Vital Role Learn more, download free white paper.
Realizing the Full Promise of Workforce Management Technology: Avoiding Mistakes That Short-Change Your Investment Learn more, download free white paper.
Convergence in Telecommunication Learn more, download free white paper.
Convergence in Telecommunication Learn more, download free white paper.
SIP Conferencing/Collaboration Learn more, download free white paper.
BioWorld: Why was this joint venture created?
Lanza: It will initially develop human blood cells and other clinical therapies based on ACTC's proprietary hemangioblast cell technology. It holds the exclusive license to all of ACT's hemangioblast technology. It is anticipated that this technology may some day help address the critical care shortage of blood for emergency situations, including military needs. The technology also has been shown to repair vascular damage in animals after heart attacks, limb ischemia and diabetes.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
BioWorld: What are the major issues facing stem cell researchers today?
Lanza: One of the major issues is the problem of tissue rejection. To date, there is no way to transplant replacement cells derived from ESCs into a patient without powerful immunosuppressive drugs, which of course, are associated with cancer, infection and a long list of other serious side effects. In fact, the need for systemic immunosuppression could make the treatment worse than the disease. This is why we are focusing on "universal" blood, platelets and diseases that involve immune-privileged sites, such as the eye. Another major problem: You need to have a source of cells that is readily available, safe and that can be generated on a large scale. Unfortunately, it turns out that only a few replacement cell types can - at least at present - be reliably generated from hESCs. Assessment of safety and efficacy also are critical before hESC therapies can move into the clinic.
BioWorld: With restrictions on federal funding under President Bush, many researchers headed overseas and there was concern that the U.S. was losing talent and momentum. Do you see this changing under President Obama?
Lanza: Yes, all of this will change under President Obama. His inauguration marks the end of a sad chapter in American scientific history - where laws were passed that actually criminalized scientific research. As you know, the Bush administration has had an adversarial relationship with the scientific community (bordering on being antiscience). The new U.S. leadership (both the White House and Congress) will hopefully now listen to advice from the medical and scientific community (rather than taking sides in religious debates). The black cloud that has hovered over stem cell research in the United States has finally been lifted. We have been operating for the last decade with one hand tied behind our back. Under the new Obama administration, money will hopefully flow to all promising avenues of research based on scientific merit (and not skewed to fit a conservative Christian agenda). This extends not only to NIH and SBIR grants, but to NIST and even to DARPA grants. The impact on the private sector is equally critical. The day after Obama was elected, investors started to come out of the woodwork. For instance, we were on the verge of bankruptcy, and did an about-face as soon as Obama was elected.
BioWorld: How far away are we from having meaningful therapies for patients?
Lanza: As far as ESCs, there are really only two companies on the verge of clinical trials - ACT and Geron. We've already had our official Pre-IND meeting with the FDA. They seemed happy with our data and clinical plans. We hope to file an IND to begin clinical trials to prevent blindness by summer. We still have a few studies to complete, but everything looks great so far. Of course, the field desperately needs a big clinical success. We have developed a technology to treat degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration. We have demonstrated that these hESC-derived cells can rescue visual function in animals that otherwise would have gone blind.
BioWorld: Last week, Geron became the first company to get FDA approval to begin a Phase I trial of an ESC product, GRNOPC1, to treat patients with spinal cord injury. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 26, 2009.) Is this a clear sign of things to come for the field?
Lanza: This is a huge advance for the entire field - my hat is off to them. This is what we've all been waiting for. It has been over a decade since ESCs were first discovered. This sends a message that we're ready at last to start helping people. Again, we are planning to file an IND with the FDA to begin clinical trials to prevent blindness this summer. Sometimes, it's the second mouse that gets the cheese. Now that the FDA is comfortable with the safety of ESC therapies, all eyes will be looking for results. That is, can you really treat or cure a disease? Of course, it's extremely important that Geron does well in this trial. It could be a disaster if something goes wrong. Remember what happened with gene therapy. They shut everyone down.
BioWorld: What sort of advantage does your technology offer?
Lanza: In addition to generating "universal" blood, there are also advantages of using retinal cells to treat blindness and eye disease. We have been able to consistently and reliably generate retinal cells - known as "retinal pigment epithelium" (or RPE) - from every hESC line we have studied. These cells have been extensively characterized and have all the markers and behavior of normal retinal cells. The retinal pigment epithelium is an important eye tissue, which plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerative diseases. In the RCS rat, improvement in visual performance was 100 percent over untreated controls without any apparent adverse effects. In untreated animals, the layer of cells the animals see with was only one layer deep after 100 days. However, in the treated animals, the cells were five-to-seven cells deep! Of course, control sham-treated eyes showed no improvement.
With the recent swearing in of new President Barack Obama there is much anticipation that the U.S. government will be more supportive of embryonic stem cell (ESC) research. In our first BioWorld Q&A feature, we spoke with Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology and chief scientific advisor for Worcester, Mass.-based International Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine International, a recently formed joint venture between ACT and CHA Biotech.
Workforce Management: At the Heart of the Contact Center Learn more, download free white paper.
The Modern Contact Center and Workforce Management�s Vital Role Learn more, download free white paper.
Realizing the Full Promise of Workforce Management Technology: Avoiding Mistakes That Short-Change Your Investment Learn more, download free white paper.
Convergence in Telecommunication Learn more, download free white paper.
Convergence in Telecommunication Learn more, download free white paper.
SIP Conferencing/Collaboration Learn more, download free white paper.
BioWorld: Why was this joint venture created?
Lanza: It will initially develop human blood cells and other clinical therapies based on ACTC's proprietary hemangioblast cell technology. It holds the exclusive license to all of ACT's hemangioblast technology. It is anticipated that this technology may some day help address the critical care shortage of blood for emergency situations, including military needs. The technology also has been shown to repair vascular damage in animals after heart attacks, limb ischemia and diabetes.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, February 2-4, 2009. Miami, Florida.
BioWorld: What are the major issues facing stem cell researchers today?
Lanza: One of the major issues is the problem of tissue rejection. To date, there is no way to transplant replacement cells derived from ESCs into a patient without powerful immunosuppressive drugs, which of course, are associated with cancer, infection and a long list of other serious side effects. In fact, the need for systemic immunosuppression could make the treatment worse than the disease. This is why we are focusing on "universal" blood, platelets and diseases that involve immune-privileged sites, such as the eye. Another major problem: You need to have a source of cells that is readily available, safe and that can be generated on a large scale. Unfortunately, it turns out that only a few replacement cell types can - at least at present - be reliably generated from hESCs. Assessment of safety and efficacy also are critical before hESC therapies can move into the clinic.
BioWorld: With restrictions on federal funding under President Bush, many researchers headed overseas and there was concern that the U.S. was losing talent and momentum. Do you see this changing under President Obama?
Lanza: Yes, all of this will change under President Obama. His inauguration marks the end of a sad chapter in American scientific history - where laws were passed that actually criminalized scientific research. As you know, the Bush administration has had an adversarial relationship with the scientific community (bordering on being antiscience). The new U.S. leadership (both the White House and Congress) will hopefully now listen to advice from the medical and scientific community (rather than taking sides in religious debates). The black cloud that has hovered over stem cell research in the United States has finally been lifted. We have been operating for the last decade with one hand tied behind our back. Under the new Obama administration, money will hopefully flow to all promising avenues of research based on scientific merit (and not skewed to fit a conservative Christian agenda). This extends not only to NIH and SBIR grants, but to NIST and even to DARPA grants. The impact on the private sector is equally critical. The day after Obama was elected, investors started to come out of the woodwork. For instance, we were on the verge of bankruptcy, and did an about-face as soon as Obama was elected.
BioWorld: How far away are we from having meaningful therapies for patients?
Lanza: As far as ESCs, there are really only two companies on the verge of clinical trials - ACT and Geron. We've already had our official Pre-IND meeting with the FDA. They seemed happy with our data and clinical plans. We hope to file an IND to begin clinical trials to prevent blindness by summer. We still have a few studies to complete, but everything looks great so far. Of course, the field desperately needs a big clinical success. We have developed a technology to treat degenerative eye diseases such as macular degeneration. We have demonstrated that these hESC-derived cells can rescue visual function in animals that otherwise would have gone blind.
BioWorld: Last week, Geron became the first company to get FDA approval to begin a Phase I trial of an ESC product, GRNOPC1, to treat patients with spinal cord injury. (See BioWorld Today, Jan. 26, 2009.) Is this a clear sign of things to come for the field?
Lanza: This is a huge advance for the entire field - my hat is off to them. This is what we've all been waiting for. It has been over a decade since ESCs were first discovered. This sends a message that we're ready at last to start helping people. Again, we are planning to file an IND with the FDA to begin clinical trials to prevent blindness this summer. Sometimes, it's the second mouse that gets the cheese. Now that the FDA is comfortable with the safety of ESC therapies, all eyes will be looking for results. That is, can you really treat or cure a disease? Of course, it's extremely important that Geron does well in this trial. It could be a disaster if something goes wrong. Remember what happened with gene therapy. They shut everyone down.
BioWorld: What sort of advantage does your technology offer?
Lanza: In addition to generating "universal" blood, there are also advantages of using retinal cells to treat blindness and eye disease. We have been able to consistently and reliably generate retinal cells - known as "retinal pigment epithelium" (or RPE) - from every hESC line we have studied. These cells have been extensively characterized and have all the markers and behavior of normal retinal cells. The retinal pigment epithelium is an important eye tissue, which plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerative diseases. In the RCS rat, improvement in visual performance was 100 percent over untreated controls without any apparent adverse effects. In untreated animals, the layer of cells the animals see with was only one layer deep after 100 days. However, in the treated animals, the cells were five-to-seven cells deep! Of course, control sham-treated eyes showed no improvement.
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