HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emerging Healthcare Solutions (PinkSheets:EHSI) personnel began training on Monday to use the company’s NASA-developed bioreactor to conduct stem cell research.
Last December, EHSI acquired a sub-license from Houston-based biotech firm Regenetech for the NASA developed rotating-wall bioreactor. Originally designed to facilitate the growth of human stem cells in simulated weightlessness, the bioreactor is key to EHSI’s mission to develop the Rutherford Procedure, a groundbreaking new proton therapy treatment for liver disease. Medically trained EHSI personnel traveled to Regentech’s stem-cell laboratory near Johnson Space Center on Monday to begin learning to use the high-tech device.
“EHSI is actively soliciting research partners in China and Europe to help us to develop cutting-edge stem cell treatments beginning with the Rutherford Procedure,” said EHSI President and CEO Cindy Morrissey. “Our NASA bioreactor is a vital piece of technology for biotech researchers seeking to grow large stem cell populations for transplant research and development. Once this week’s training is complete, our top personnel will be able to instruct research partners on the bioreactor’s usage and capabilities.
“Soon, the trainees will become the trainers,” she said.
The first rotating-wall bioreactor was created after NASA’s space shuttle fleet was grounded following the Challenger disaster. Researchers studying human cell growth in a weightless environment no longer had access to the microgravity conditions of space. In response, NASA engineers built a soup can-sized, rotating chamber that used continuous motion to simulate weightlessness. A cell sample, contained in a growth fluid, could be placed in the rotating chamber and suspended in a constant state of falling—similar to an object in space orbit.
In simulated weightlessness, cells multiply rapidly into healthy populations, providing a faster, cheaper and higher-quality source of stem cells for therapy or medical research. Cells grown inside the bioreactor also look and function much closer to those found in the body than cells grown two-dimensionally in Petri dishes. These characteristics make EHSI’s bioreactor an ideal tool for producing large, healthy groups of stem cells suitable for all types of stem cell research.
“The rotating-wall bioreactor is really one of NASA’s great unsung innovations,” Morrissey said. “It was first developed over 25 years ago, and it’s still cutting-edge technology. We have received interest from a great many firms interested in using it to produce new products and therapies.
EHSI invests in technology developed to compete in the stem-cell research industry alongside Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ:DNDN), Smith & Nephew (NYSE:SNN) and Pharmaceutical Product Development (NASDAQ:PPDI).
About Emerging Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
Emerging Healthcare Solutions, Inc. invests in and participates in the profits of emerging breakthrough medical technologies. The Company believes the secret of leveraging future value for its shareholders is the proper timing of its investment in promising new medical technologies. EHSI aims to capture future profits of promising new medical technologies by investing in these technologies at the inflection point of product development. We believe this model will deliver long-term positive results for our investors.
For more information, please visit http://www.EmergingHealthcareSolutionsInc.com.
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