News: Portfolio 2007

Neuronyx testing adult stem cell therapy in heart patients

Philadelphia Business Journal - January 19, 2007 by John GeorgeStaff Writer

January 19, 2007: - MALVERN - Neuronyx Inc., a company founded by local biotechnology luminary Hubert J.P. Schoemaker six years before his death, is getting encouraging results from early testing of its first experimental therapy derived from adult stem cells.

 

The company is using unmodified stem cells taken from adult bone marrow to help patients repair and regenerate heart tissue damaged in heart attacks.

 

"Hubert saw stem-cell technology as the next great medical frontier," said Anne Faulkner Schoemaker, Hubert's wife and the interim-CEO at Neuronyx. "He made the conscious choice to work with adult stem cells so he wouldn't have to deal with the social and ethical issues tied to embryonic stem cells, but he passionately believed adult stem cells could be extremely useful."

 

 

Founded in 1999, Neuronyx has raised $41.8 million from private investors. It has 23 employees at its Malvern headquarters, where the company has the manufacturing capabilities to produce billions of stem cells for clinical testing.

 

Faulkner Shoemaker said the company's researchers tinkered with modified stem cells before narrowing theirs focus to unmodified ones. She said their "aha moment" came during a study of rats with spinal-cord injures.

 

Unmodified stem cells were used to treat the rats. Researchers discovered those cells helped the rats' own immune systems function.

 

"The [unmodified stem cells] work like little factories that find their way to the site of the injury to promote the body's ability to repair and regenerate tissue by itself," she said.

 

The body will attempt to heal itself, but often it can't when it is overwhelmed by a disease or injury. Adult stem cells, she said, act like "little rocket boosters" to stimulate the process.

 

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