The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice
By Mary Vanac
Clinical-stage regenerative medicine company Juventas Therapeutics Inc. — a Cleveland Clinic spin-out initially named AcelleRX Therapeutics Inc. — started enrolling patients in a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of its leading stem cell factor for treating heart failure.
Aastrom Biosciences Inc. (NSDQ:ASTMD) finished treating patients in a Phase 2 clinical trial of its cardiac-repair stem cells.
The milestone clears the way for Aastrom to report six-month interim results of the trial later this year, according to a press release.
In the trial, Aastrom treated 40 patients suffering from dilated cardiomyopathy, a severe form of congestive heart failure in which the heart becomes weakened and enlarged and cannot pump blood efficiently.
Biocell Center Corp. and Caritas Christi Health Care inked a deal to start a cryopreservation service for amniotic fluid stem cells.
The Italian biotech firm, which has its U.S. headquarters in Medford, Mass., and New England’s largest community hospital network will use Biocell’s method of preserving stem cells obtained during routine second-trimester amniocentesis procedures. The mesenchymal stem cells can be stored for decades and are believed to hold the key to treating or even eventually curing a raft of diseases. Parents can opt to preserve the cells for use in the event of future illness for themselves or their children.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Aastrom Biosciences (NSDQ:ASTMD), once in danger of being de-listed from the NASDAQ exchange, regained compliance with the exchange’s $1 minimum-share-price requirement.
Harvest Technologies Corp. completed enrollment in a clinical trial of its technique to use concentrated autologous bone marrow cells to treat patients with non-reconstructable critical limb ischemia.
Biocell Center Corp., the European biotech firm that pioneered a method of preserving amniotic stem cells, opened its U.S. headquarters in Medford, Mass.
Biocell CEO Kate Torchilin said the company can preserve a portion of the sample taken during amniocentesis on pregnant women, which contains stem cells that can be used to treat illness or regenerate tissue.
Harvest Technologies Corp. won approval from the Food & Drug Administration for a 42-patient trial of its technique to use concentrated autologous bone marrow cells to treat patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafts.
The FDA’s investigational device exemption allows the Plymouth, Mass.-based firm to study whether its BMAC system can help re-grow dead or damaged heart tissue. The two phase feasibility trial will see a one patient group injected with the concentrated stem cells after CABG surgery and a control group treated with CABG alone.
Blue dye helps repair spinal cord damage, turns rats into cute animals: Researchers at University of Rochester Medical Center injected mice with spinal cord injuries with a derivative of food coloring Blue Number One. The Brilliant Blue G dye, which helps control the activity of ATP by blocking its activation of P2X7 receptors, was shown to help repair the injured spinal cords — treated animals even started moving their previously paralyzed limbs.
