The Road Ahead

I headed north again to New Jersey and along the way I was thinking about the impact of the medical technologies I learned about in Washington D.C. As I flew, my mind began to race at the thought of other areas of biotechnology that would shape the future of medicine.

One area I have heard a LOT about is stem cell research. I remember lots of debate and questions about what they were and what they could do from places like California and Wisconsin. I wondered to myself, are there any companies working in stem cell science in New Jersey?

There was only one way to find out. I re-routed my BioStrength Locator to search for stem cell science and I was hit with an intense alarm and flashing as it indicated that I was definitely in the right place.

I landed and called up the readout which showed a company called Progenitor Cell Therapy, LLC. This company is based in Hackensack and provides critical services that companies involved in cellular therapeutic development need to produce and deliver their cutting-edge medicines. This includes cGMP-compliant cell manufacturing and consulting across regulatory, financial, technical, process and quality groups. They also specialize in support for process and product development, validation and tissue collection, processing and storage.

Next on my list was Stem Cell Innovations, with offices in Scotch Plains. This cell biology company has a proprietary stem cell platform called PluriCells™, which can differentiate into a broad range of human cell types. This platform has the potential to make a major impact on the dynamics of drug discovery and to affect a broad range of critical diseases.

Finally, I pulled up the file for Celgene Cellular Therapeutics. I had heard of Celgene Corporation, but Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, or CCT, was new to me. CCT, it turns out, is a subsidiary of Celgene that is focused on developing therapies from stem cells derived from the human placenta – a safe and almost unlimited source. CCT’s multipotent stem cells are highly versatile, with the potential to repair and regenerate a broad range of damaged or diseased tissues. These therapies hold tremendous promise as they are scalable to a traditional pharmaceutical level and PDA001, the first of these stem cells, is already in human clinical studies to treat Crohn’s disease. Last, the science at CCT is truly groundbreaking. I learned that in the August edition of Nature Biotechnology, an article on the landscape of stem cell patents was published and CCT holds two of the “top 20” patents highlighted.

Then it hit me like a ton of test tubes! There has to be information regarding my findings during the Hot Topics in Science track at Biotech 2009…in fact, there is! The second session on Tuesday, November 17th…Regenerative Medicine for Brain Injury: From the Battlefield to the Clinic! I can’t believe it…this is fantastic…and as each day passes, I become exponentially more and more excited for this symposium…this grand event…my Mecca for all things regionally bioscience! Only 28 more days…and to think…I still need to register!

As I resumed my journey, I felt a surge of hope and pride after learning that New Jersey is truly on the cutting edge of medical science.

Until next time...

Helixman