UK Grant to Advance Nanomedicine Platform

ReNeuron Group, a leading UK-based stem cell therapy development company, has been awarded a £2.1 million grant from Innovate UK to further advance its emerging exosome nanomedicine platform.

The grant, entitled “Stem cell-derived exosomes for regenerative medicine”, has been awarded under Innovate UK’s Developing Regenerative Medicine & Cell Therapies” grant scheme and will fund a collaborative programme of work to be undertaken by ReNeuron, as lead participantand its collaborators on the grant, the Cell Therapy Catapult and the Department of Biochemical Engineering at University College London.

It will fund development of robust manufacturing systems utilising scalable bioreactors and purification technologies that will enable the production of ReNeuron’s exosomes at a commercial scale. The work programme also includes product characterisation and potency assay development, pre-clinical efficacy and toxicity testing of the selected nanomedicine candidate.

The Company is also exploring the potential of its exosomes as a delivery system for gene therapy treatments. In-house researchers have identified a novel mechanism by which exosomes from its clinical-grade CTX stem cells may inhibit the growth and migration of cancer cells in pre-clinical models of the disease and multiple patent applications have been filed.

Olav Hellebø, Chief Executive Officer of ReNeuron, said: “ReNeuron is a global leader in the exciting new field of exosome therapeutics and we are therefore delighted to have won this prestigious grant from Innovate UK. The grant application process was highly competitive and subjected our exosome nanomedicine programme to expert technical peer review. As a result, the award of the grant represents a strong endorsement of the potential of this emerging advanced therapy platform and will enable us to rapidly progress its development towards initial clinical application.”