Therapeutics

Medicyte goes therapeutic...

Conventional pharmaceutical treatments are in general limited in their applicability to treat or cure tissues and organs. Transplantation is the first choice for reconstruction of such devastated tissues or organs. However, transplantation in patients is severely limited by availability of compatible donors.

Tissue engineering could offer a potential alternative by implantation of an engineered biological substitute (artificial organs) to restore or re-establish normal function.

The current market for such cell-based regenerative medicine applications amounts to several hundred million Euro and is projected to grow with a compound annual growth rate of 25% to 30% to a multi-billion Euro market over the next decade.

Building organs requires multiple components to generate functionality, main tissue, connective tissue, blood vessels and supportive cells. Medicyte is covering all these aspects in different projects. The combined experience of these projects enables Medicyte's own development of implantable constructs or "bioartificial" organs for therapeutic applications.

Starting with the 3D structure a proper scaffold is needed. In collaboration with partners, Medicyte investigates upcyte^® hepatocyte functionality on 3D plates.

Furthermore cell-cell interactions are needed to generate organ functionality. Medicyte is engaged in the prestigious international research project HeMiBio (information leaflet ). The Hepatic Microfluidic Bioreactor (HeMiBio) is mimicking the human liver, reproducing the heterotypic interactions between the parenchymal (hepatocytes) and non-parenchymal cells (hepatic stellate cells and hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells). All three liver cells are expanded using our upcyte^® technology.

Another big issue of tissue engineering is the (neo-) vascularization that is essential for the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the cells in the constructs. Together with numerous partners, Medicyte works on the development of vascularized transplants. In the project BioVaSc (Biological Vascularised Scaffold), patient own cells are expanded in vitro on a de-cellularized organ scaffold. The goal is the in vitro generation of human organ tissue for transplantation. One of the challenges is the appropriate vascularization of the newly formed tissue using Medicyte´s upcyte^® techniques.

In the international collaboration project VascuBone, Medicyte co-operates with Fraunhofer Institute, Johnson & Johnson Medical, and other European institutes and companies on the development of a toolbox for bone tissue regeneration. The tool box will include a variation of biocompatible biomaterials and cell types, FDA approved growth factors, material modification technologies, simulation and analytical tools which can be combined for the specific medical need. Medicyte´s contribution is the supply of vericyte^® microvascular endothelial cells for vascularization of newly formed tissue.

A cell therapeutic initiative by Medicyte, Primacyt (Germany) and the University of Tübingen (Germany) is optimizing detoxification and metabolism capabilities, proliferative capacity, cryoconservation and cell media of upcyte^® hepatocytes for therapeutic applications.