Expanding hope for bone marrow transplant patients
Another interesting Israeli company.
jpost.com
From the article:
"Around Rosh Hashana time last year, Dr. Irit Arbel, CEO of biotechnology start-up Pluristem Life Systems, showed her employees a film about umbilical cord blood and about the patients who undergo bone marrow transplants using it. Many left the meeting room in tears, and returned straight to their laboratories, some of them putting in a 24-hour shift.
"We understand this is a business and all of us, including me, want to get a profit from it, but we also understand that we are developing a life-saving technology that can offer help and hope to many patients in this field," admits Arbel.
Pluristem's technology, the PluriX Bioreactor which is still only at pre-clinical trial stage, can expand stem cells, T-cells, and other blood-related cells. While there are many potential applications for this technology, at present the 12-man company has decided to focus on the expansion of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) from umbilical cord blood, which can be used for bone-marrow transplants.
The significance of a device that can expand cord blood is huge. Today, bone marrow transplants are the last hope for many patients suffering from diseases that range from cancer and leukemia, to lymphoma, aplastic anemia, and other diseases of the immune or blood systems." |
