Histogen forms cancer joint venture

By daniellenierenberg

Histogen's chief executive, Gail Naughton.

Histogen, a San Diego biotech company developing a hair loss treatment from stem cells, has established a joint venture for cancer therapy.

Privately held Histogen has created the venture, Histogen Oncology, in partnership with the medical device company Wylde LLC. Wylde contributed $2.5 million, said Gail Naughton, the company's chief executive.

The company's technology grows young skin cells called fibroblasts under simulated embryonic conditions, including low oxygen levels. The company says these conditions cause the cells to become embryonic-like, making proteins and substances called growth factors characteristic of young tissue. Histogen uses these substances in its various products.

Histogen Oncology uses certain of these substances that enable cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death, or apoptosis. These substances turn on a gene that controls apoptosis, which naturally occurs in damaged cells, Naughton said.

Since the cancer cells are genetically abnormal, they begin to self-destruct when apoptosis is triggered. Normal cells are not affected, because the apoptosis mechanism is already turned on, she said. The loss of this mechanism is a hallmark of cancer.

Histogen Oncology intends intends to apply within 18 months to start clinical trials in Stage 4 advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer, Naughton said. This cancer is a good target because it has a high mortality rate, so better therapies are urgently needed, she said.

There's an average 6.7 percent survival rate for patients over a five-year period after diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

"We're hoping that we're going to see an increase in the person's life, without any toxic side effects," Naughton said.

The substances will be given either intravenously or injected into the abdominal cavity.

Read this article:
Histogen forms cancer joint venture

Related Post


categoriaSkin Stem Cells commentoComments Off on Histogen forms cancer joint venture | dataJuly 11th, 2014

About...

This author published 4761 posts in this site.

Share

FacebookTwitterEmailWindows LiveTechnoratiDeliciousDiggStumbleponMyspaceLikedin

Comments are closed.





Personalized Gene Medicine | Mesenchymal Stem Cells | Stem Cell Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis | Stem Cell Treatments | Board Certified Stem Cell Doctors | Stem Cell Medicine | Personalized Stem Cells Therapy | Stem Cell Therapy TV | Individual Stem Cell Therapy | Stem Cell Therapy Updates | MD Supervised Stem Cell Therapy | IPS Stem Cell Org | IPS Stem Cell Net | Genetic Medicine | Gene Medicine | Longevity Medicine | Immortality Medicine | Nano Medicine | Gene Therapy MD | Individual Gene Therapy | Affordable Stem Cell Therapy | Affordable Stem Cells | Stem Cells Research | Stem Cell Breaking Research

Copyright :: 2024