Bioheart Receives Funds to Develop Adult Stem Cell Therapies
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Bioheart, Inc. has announced that in conjunction with Cleveland Clinic it will receive funds from a grant awarded by the Biomedical Research and Commercialization Program (BRCP) of the State of Ohio.
Bioheart will collaborate with Cleveland Clinic under the grant in order to accelerate the development of cell therapies for congestive heart failure and heart attack patients.
The grant funds will support research that involves repairing damaged heart tissue by transplanting muscle stem cells that express therapeutic proteins capable of homing other stem cells within a patient's own body to the cell transplanted area.
The recruited stem cells further assist in the tissue repair process and help to increase blood vessel formation.
It was announced earlier this year that Bioheart licensed a series of patents from Cleveland Clinic covering this stem cell homing technology.
If successful, this collaboration will also create new jobs in Ohio to support this preclinical and clinical work.
"The funds awarded by the State of Ohio will be of tremendous help in more rapidly bringing these cell technologies to the market," said Howard J. Leonhardt, Chairman and CEO of Bioheart.
"As a leader in cardiovascular disease management, we will look to Cleveland Clinic to help expand the potential of these technologies for patient benefit. We look forward to strengthening our ongoing collaboration," he added.
Marc Penn, M.D., Ph.D., of the Departments of Cardiovascular Medicine and Cell Biology at Cleveland Clinic pioneered the use of stem cell homing factors, molecules that recruit stem cells to the heart, to treat heart failure and will be the principal investigator for this research.
Dr. Penn has conducted large animal studies on the first potential product for which Bioheart plans to file an Investigational New Drug application with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to begin human clinical trials.
"Our lab has studied, identified and developed strategies for delivering several stem cell homing factors to the heart that we believe will offer a significant clinical benefit," the Clinic's Dr. Penn said.
"These grant funds will help us to further develop these cell-based strategies for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction and chronic heart failure," he added.
