Ocata Therapeutics (OTC:OCAT)

Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., incorporated on May 18, 2000, is a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing human embryonic and adult stem cell technology in the emerging field of regenerative medicine. The Company has acquired, developed and maintained a portfolio of patents and patent applications that forms the base for its research and development efforts in the area of embryonic and adult stem cell research. The Company’s emerging field of treatment called regenerative medicine or cell therapy refers to treatments that are founded on the concept of producing new cells to replace malfunctioning or damaged cells as a vehicle to treat disease and injury. It focuses on the development of effective methods to generate replacement cells from both human embryonic and adult stem cells. The Company has also secured Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance to proceed to a Phase II Clinical Trial for its Myoblast program for the treatment of heart failure, and the trial is being developed. In September 2011, it received approval from U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to conduct an SMD clinical trial in the United Kingdom.

The Company owned licenses to over 35 issued patents and over 170 patent applications in the field of regenerative medicine and stem cell therapy. The Company’s embryonic stem (ES) cell research programs are divided into three categories: cellular reprogramming, reduced complexity program, and stem cell differentiation. The Company has patent rights and applications for specific applications of stem cell technology in producing retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, hemangioblasts, myoblast stem cells and numerous methods and compositions for the use of these technologies and derived cells in treating retinal and other eye disease, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, heart disease, as well as to provide agents for wound healing and replacement of blood components. The Company's Hemangioblast program for the treatment of Diseases and Disorders of Circulatory and Vascular System is in preclinical development. These precursor cells derived from human embryonic stem (ES) cells can be used to achieve vascular repair in animal models of vascular injury.

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Technologies

The Company has developed an alternative to ICM-derivation of hESC - a method which utilizes single cell biopsy to remove a single blastomere from a 4-8 cell preembryo in a manner which does not result in the destruction of the preembryo. In clinics, single cells are removed from 4-8 cell pre-embryos and tested for genetic and chromosomal abnormalities, and embryos which pass PGD screening can then be used for implantation, suggesting to us that the single cell biopsy process is not only non-destructive, but may further be considered as a process which does not subject the preembryo to any undue risk of harm.The Company has also maintained a strategic focus on producing pluripotent cell lines that are histocompatible with the patients in which the cells are to be injected or transplanted.

Cellular Reprogramming research program involves development of therapies based on the use of genetically identical pluripotent stem cells generated by its cellular reprogramming technologies. These technologies can be used to generate patient-specific pluripotent cells and tissues for transplantation. Some of the technologies that support its cellular reprogramming program are somatic cell nuclear transfer, chromatin transfer, and fusion technologies. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) refers to the process wherein a body cell is transferred to an egg cell from which the nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) has been removed. This results in the body cell being reprogrammed by the egg cell. This reprogramming transforms the cell from the type of cell it was, for instance a skin cell, into an embryonic cell with the power to become any cell type in the body. Chromatin transfer has the potential to improve the efficiencies and therefore reduce the cost of nuclear transfer. Its fusion technologies involve the fusion of the cytoplasm of one cell into another.

Cell Therapy Research Programs

Regenerative medicine requires that stem cells, from whatever source derived, be differentiated, or re-differentiated, into specific body cell types and then physically transplanted into a patient. Differentiation into tissues, such as cardiac muscle, blood, and other tissues occurs spontaneously in ES cells being cultured in a dish. Successful application of stem cell technology requires control over the specific kinds of cells into which stem cells differentiate. Hemangioblasts are a newly-characterized stem cell capable of differentiating into hematopoietic, meaning blood cell forming, and angiogenic, meaning blood vessel endothelium forming, cells.

Adult Stem Cell Program

Advanced Cell Technology's adult stem cell-based program is developing an autologous myoblast transplantation therapy delivered using a minimally invasive catheter injection system to restore cardiac function in patients with advanced heart disease. The Company's therapy could also benefit patients supported on ventricular assistance devices and potential additional indications, such as acute myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease, and non-cardiac tissue repair. Transplantation therapy involves extraction through biopsy from a patient's thigh of myoblasts, which are non-embryonic, skeletal muscle stem cells that can be expanded in culture and injected back into damaged and scarred regions of the heart. This therapy promotes repair of damaged cardiac tissue by autologous cells, thereby avoiding immune rejection as each patient receives their own cells.

Web site: http://www.advancedcell.com/

Last updated July 30, 2012