Disease Focus: Bone or Cartilage Disease
Development of a Chondrogenic Drug Candidate Targeting Cartilage-residing Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the Treatment of Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent musculoskeletal disease affecting nearly 27 million people in the United States, and is the leading cause of chronic disability in the United States. Current therapeutic options are limited to pain or symptom-modifying drugs and joint replacement surgery; no disease-modifying drugs are approved for clinical use. OA is characterized by […]
Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Chondroprogenitor Cells to Repair Osteochondral Defects
Surgical approaches to the treatment of focal cartilage defects can be classified into repair, replacement, and regeneration therapies. Marrow stimulation procedures such as microfracture result in a repair tissue that is predominantly fibrocartilaginous in nature, which is mechanically less durable than articular cartilage and survives on average 7 years before requiring another procedure. Osteochondral grafting […]
Multi-modal technology for non-destructive characterization of bioengineered tissues
Stem cell technologies hold great promise for engineering replacement tissues for repairing functional loss from trauma or disease. Such therapies are particularly important for replacing bone and cartilage in the aging population to maintain an active quality of life. However, the application of stem cells to generate individualized implantable grafts suffers from patient-to-patient variability that […]
Injectable Macroporous Matrices to Enhance Stem Cell Engraftment and Survival
Despite the great promise stem cells hold for regenerative medicine, the efficacy of stem cell-based therapies is greatly limited by poor cell engraftment and survival. To overcome this major bottleneck, the goal of this proposal is to validate the efficacy of novel microribbon (µRB)-based scaffolds for cell delivery. These scaffolds combine the injectability and cell […]
Gene Targeting to Endogenous Stem Cells for Segmental Bone Fracture Healing
Segmental bone fractures are a complex medical condition. These injuries cause great suffering to patients, long-term hospitalization, repeated surgeries, loss of working days, and considerable costs to the health system. It is well known that bone grafts taken from the patient (autografts) are considered the gold-standard therapy for these bone defects. Yet these grafts are […]
Treatment of non-traumatic osteonecrosis with endogenous Mesenchymal stem cells
Although most individuals are aware that osteoporosis is disease of increased bone fragility that results from estrogen deficiency and aging, most are unaware of the high risk and cost of the disorder. It is estimated that close to 30% of the fractures that occur in the United States each year are due to osteoporosis (Schwartz […]
Tissue engineered cartilage from autologous, dermis-isolated, adult, stem (DIAS) cells
This study addresses the cartilage defects resulting from injuries or from wear-and-tear that can eventually degenerate to osteoarthritis. This is a significant problem that impacts millions and costs in excess of $65B per annum in the US alone. Addressing this indication successfully holds potential for halting the progression of cartilage damage before it destroys the […]
Genetically Engineered Mesenchymal Stem Cells for the Treatment of Vertebral Compression Fractures.
Osteoporosis is an unsolved and highly prevalent health care problem: 10 million Americans suffer from the disease, and an additional 34 million have low bone mass. Roughly half of all women and a fourth of all men older than 50 years will sustain an osteoporosis-related fracture at some time in their lives, and when such […]
Increasing the endogenous mesenchymal stem cells to the bone surface to treat osteoporosis
Although most individuals are aware that osteoporosis is disease of increased bone fragility that results from estrogen deficiency and aging, most are unaware of the high risk and cost of the disorder. It is estimated that close to 30% of the fractures that occur in the United States each year are due to osteoporosis (Schwartz […]
Clinical Development of an osteoinductive therapy to prevent osteoporosis-related fractures
There are over 1.5 million osteoporotic fractures annually in the USA alone, at a cost of approximately $15 billion each year. The majority of these fractures occur in the spine, followed by the hip and wrist. Incidence varies according to age; vertebral fracture rates increase rapidly by the sixth decade of life, whereas the risk […]