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VistaGen Signs Research Alliance With UHN and McEwen Centre

Posted on: Thursday, 13 March 2008, 09:01 CDT

VistaGen Therapeutics has announced an expansive embryonic stem cell research alliance with Toronto's University Health Network, Canada's leading research hospital, and its stem cell research affiliate, the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine.

The new collaboration positions VistaGen to continue to leverage the embryonic stem (ES) cell biology expertise and ES cell technologies of Dr Gordon Keller, director of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine. VistaGen and Dr Keller expect to conduct research into advanced techniques to differentiate ES cells into mature cardiac, liver, and pancreatic beta-islet cells. This will enhance VistaGen's in vitro biological systems and bioinformatics databases for predictive toxicology applications.

The new sponsored research program builds on VistaGen's existing strategic licenses to Dr Keller's prior ES cell intellectual property, and covers new ES cell-based research projects. VistaGen also expects to use the results of this research to develop the next generation of its customized ES cell-based heart, liver and pancreatic beta-islet cell differentiation systems for discovering new drugs to treat heart disease, liver disease and diabetes.

Ralph Snodgrass, president and CEO of VistaGen, said: "This collaboration dramatically expands our ES cell R&D programs. Through the new arrangement with UHN and the McEwen Centre, we expect to develop and commercialize a broad range of next generation stem cell technologies for the pharmaceutical industry.

Source: Datamonitor

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