Cell therapy weekly: New immunoengineering center announced
This week: A new collaboration between Biogelx and Regemat3D.
The news highlights:
New center for immunoengineering established by John Hopkins
Biogelx and Regemat3d announce major collaboration
New research suggests the lymphatic system is vital to heart regeneration in zebrafish
BioLife Solutions announce strong earnings from third quarter
New center for immunoengineering established by John Hopkins
John Hopkins University (MD, USA) has launched a new center for immunoengineering with a US$6.7 million grant from the National Health Institute (MD, USA). The new center hopes to combine the expertise of oncologists, immunologists and biomedical engineers to tackle cancer and autoimmune diseases.
“When scientists work across disciplines, that’s when major advances in the fields happen,” explains Professor Jonathan Schneck (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine). “The advances in immunotherapy have been beacons in the darkness, but they haven’t answered everything. This is an opportunity to catalyze the next breakthroughs that we need.”
Biogelx and Regemat3d announce major collaboration
Biogelx (Chapelhall, UK) and Regemat3d (Granada, Spain) have announced a major new collaboration for R&D and distribution networks. Regemat3d develop clinical and pre-clinical models for skin and cartilage regeneration in over 20 countries and hope to utilize the bioprinting ability of Biogelx to further their modelling capabilities.
“We are excited to see future tissue models using Biogelxâ„¢-INKs. We believe that this strategic partnership will expand the distribution of our novel peptide-based bioink products to new and existing customers worldwide and provide Regemat3D with an extended platform to provide their customers a robust synthetic bioink for use with their very successful range of bioprinters,” said Sandy Bulloch, Director of Strategic Alliances (Biogelx).
New research suggests the lymphatic system is vital to heart regeneration in zebrafish
Research from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles — Saban Research Institute (LA, USA) have not only demonstrated that zebrafish have a lymphatic system, but also that it could be vital to the animals’ ability to regenerate cardiac tissue. During regeneration, the vessels were observed extending over the wound area and that failure to do so drastically impacted regeneration. The team hope that discovery could enable a new perspective on cardiac regeneration.
“We’re interested in zebrafish because of their incredible capacity for regeneration,” explained Michael Harrison, (Saban Research Institute). “Zebrafish can clear the damaged tissue and replace it with fresh, functioning heart muscle.”
BioLife Solutions announce strong earnings from third quarter
BioLife Solutions (WA, USA) has announced quarterly revenue of US$6.6 million, an increase of 25% on their previous year’s performance. All this occurs as the company acquires Custom Biogenic System (MI, USA) which they expect to increase their yearly revenue by US$1 million in the remainder of this year, and US$6 million next.
“Q3 was another strong quarter of operational execution, growth and strategic activities supporting our vision to build BioLife into a premier bioproduction tools supplier. We achieved our financial goals in our cell and gene therapy franchise with the exception of biopreservation media revenue,” explained Mike Rice, BioLife Solutions CEO. “A primary driver of our M&A strategy is to broaden our product portfolio in order to mitigate the impact of this concentration, while pursuing our next financial milestone of US$100 million in annual revenue. We believe that our acquisition of CBS will be a key component of our revenue growth and diversification strategy. With US$1 to US$2 million in revenue expected from CBS during the remainder of this year, we are raising the top of our 2019 revenue guidance range.”
For more weekly cell therapy news, read previous editions of the cell therapy weekly.
Have any additional questions about this story? Ask us in the comments, below.
Find out more in these top picks from the Editor:
- Specific heart regeneration cells identified in zebrafish
- CAR-T immunotherapy enters clinical trial against first autoimmune disease
- Point-of-care bioprinter mimics skin structure to accelerate wound healing