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NEWS out : Thursday March 1, 5:59 am Eastern Time StemCells, Inc. Announces Receipt of NIH Funding SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--March 1, 2001--StemCells, Inc. (Nasdaq: STEM - news) announced that it has been awarded a two year, $300,000 per year grant from the NIH`s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) office. ``We are delighted to receive this funding, which will fund further work in our liver stem cell program,`` commented Martin McGlynn, President and CEO of StemCells, Inc. StemCells Inc. has been focused on identifying human liver stem and progenitor cells as a potential cell based therapeutic in the area of liver disease. As part of this work, scientists at the Company have identified conditions that allow an early liver cell to grow in culture. In collaboration with virologist Dr. Jeffrey Glenn, at Stanford University, they have also shown that these cells can be infected by a human hepatitis virus. The aim of the SBIR grant is to further characterize the human cells that can be infected by the virus. In addition, they hope to develop a small animal model using these cells that can be infected by human hepatitis viruses to develop assays for the disease, which is a growing public health problem in the United States. ``Such an animal model could lead to the discovery and testing of better therapeutics for the detection, treatment, or prevention of this prevalent infectious agent,`` commented Eric Lagasse, Director of Liver Cell Research at StemCells, Inc. Hepatitis C is the most common blood-borne infection in the US, affecting over 4 million people. Currently there are no vaccines or drugs that specifically target the hepatitis C virus. StemCells Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of stem cell-based therapies to treat diseases of the central nervous system, liver, and pancreas. The Company`s stem cell programs seek to repair or repopulate neural or other tissue that has been damaged or lost as a result of disease or injury. |
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| aus der Diskussion: | Stemcells, Was haltet Ihr davon |
| Autor (Datum des Eintrages): | FLOTSAM_AND_JETSAM_US (01.03.01 12:39:29) |
| Beitrag: | 24 von 29 (ID:3007218) |
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