BioE Stem Cell Featured in Experimental Hematology Review Article About Potential of Cord Blood Stem Cells

BioE^®, Inc., a biomedical company that provides enabling, high-quality human stem cells for drug discovery and therapeutic research, announced today a review article published in the December 2007 issue (Vol. 35, Issue 12) of the journal Experimental Hematology features its Multi-Lineage Progenitor Cell™ (MLPC™) as a cord blood stem cell with potential for therapeutic and cell regeneration applications.

Dan Collins, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief scientific officer for BioE, contributed to the paper with leading physicians and researchers from Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center. Specifically, the review’s authors cite the MLPC’s controlled and extensive differentiation capabilities; genetic stability and lack of teratoma formation; and ability to develop pure clonal cell lines as key characteristics that define the stem cell’s high utility compared to embryonic stem cells and adult-source stem cells.

“BioE's MLPC stem cell shows great promise as a critical cord blood stem cell that in the future could be utilized to regenerate a variety of tissues including cardiac, skin, nervous, pancreatic (insulin producing) among others,” said senior author Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D., chief, Blood & Marrow Transplantation at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and professor of pediatrics, medicine and pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. “As stem cell research continues to advance on many fronts, cord blood stem cells - including the MLPC - likely will provide researchers a viable source of cells to help repair numerous tissues within the body in the near term.

Compared to embryonic and adult stem cells, cord blood stem cells are widely available, and their immaturity and flexibility should produce larger quantities of homogeneous tissues or cells for transplantation and help minimize rejection of generated tissue when transplanted into a mismatched host.”

While cord blood stem cells were once considered functionally limited, the review’s authors discuss a voluminous body of research demonstrating their ability to differentiate into non-blood-related cells and tissue lineages. For example, research shows the cord blood-derived MLPC stem cell has the ability to turn into cells representative of the three different embryonic germinal layers, including liver and pancreatic precursor cells, terminally differentiated liver cells, lung cells, fat cells, cartilage cells, bone cells, skeletal muscle, blood vessels, neural stem cells and nerve cells.

“The MLPC is an attractive cord blood stem cell for many researchers due to its significant differentiation capabilities, easy accessibility and ability to maintain genetic stability through 80 doublings,” Dr. Collins said. “The clonally BioE Stem Cell Featured in Experimental Hematology Review Article About Potential of Cord Blood Stem Cells derived cells can be expanded into therapeutically relevant numbers of cells, thus providing a pure population of identically behaving cells.”

Current MLPC Adoption
During the past two years, more than 100 academic research institutions, corporate laboratories and
pharmaceutical organizations located around the world have licensed the MLPC from BioE for a variety of stem cell and regenerative medicine research and drug development purposes. Additionally, BioE is engaged in a variety of collaborative stem cell research partnerships to further advance its understanding of the MLPC. Current MLPC research partners and areas of study include:

• University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) - Respiratory disease and lung injury; teratoma formation; augmentation of hematopoietic engraftment and reduction of graft versus host disease (GVHD) and autoimmune disorders.
• University of New South Wales and South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Area Health Service/Diabetes Transplant Unit (Sydney, Australia) - Diabetes.
• University of Texas/M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (Austin, Texas) - Cancer treatments; anti-tumor protein delivery.
• Phillips Plastics (Prescott, Wisc.) - Stem cell therapeutics for orthopedic (bone, cartilage, tendons, ligaments and spinal discs) applications.
• University of Newcastle (Newcastle, U.K.) - Other novel umbilical cord blood cells sourced using BioE’s stem cell enrichment platform.

“We are pleased to see the MLPC recognized as a cord blood stem cell at the forefront of stem cell research,” Dr. Collins said. “While further and continued research is required, we are hopeful that the MLPC has the characteristics and functionality needed to one day help impact medicine and improve patient care.”