Engineering Research Center Aims to Revolutionize Treatment of Cancers, Diseases and Other Disorders

FREDERICK, Md. (PRWEB) June 13, 2018

RoosterBio Inc. has joined the new NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies, known as CMaT. The center, launched in 2017 with a $20 million investment from the National Science Foundation, aims to revolutionize the treatment of cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases and other disorders by enabling scalable manufacturing and broad use of potentially curative therapies that utilize living cells – such as immune cells and stem cells – as “drugs.”

CMaT is a consortium of universities, companies, clinical and workforce development partners brought together to develop transformative tools and technologies as well as the critically needed workforce for the consistent, scalable and low-cost production of high-quality living therapeutic cells. Such cells, which are being developed by research and clinical institutions worldwide, could be used in a broad range of life-saving medical therapies.

RoosterBio’s high-volume, well-characterized adult hMSCs (human marrow-derived stromal cells) and paired high efficiency bioprocess media systems remove several years and millions of dollars from product development and clinical testing. This first-of-its-kind, “off the shelf” line of products, that enables customers to leap ahead in their own research and manufacturing, is revolutionizing how cell therapies and constructs that require living cells are developed, clinically-translated, and commercialized. Given its deep bioprocess expertise in stem cell manufacturing, RoosterBio is uniquely positioned to partner with other like-minded organizations and initiatives, such as CMaT, to drive the acceleration of stem cell-based therapeutics and support the development of a sustainable regenerative medicine industry. To this end, RoosterBio is offering all CMaT Members its bioprocess stem cell systems as standardized cellular starting materials, allowing for the development of robust, scalable biomanufacturing platforms. Ultimately this delivers reproducible and comparable analytical assay development and correlative outcomes quantification across member institutions.

To facilitate the widespread application of these cutting-edge emerging treatments, CMaT will develop robust and scalable technologies, innovative analytical tools, computational models, and engineered systems that will enable industry and clinical facilities to reproducibly manufacture efficient, safe and affordable cell-therapy products. The center will also develop improved models for a robust supply chain, storage and distribution system for these therapeutic cell products.

In addition to the consistent manufacture of cell-based therapies, the public-private CMaT initiative will also help develop a skilled, diverse and inclusive bio-manufacturing workforce through extensive education and training activities at the K-12, technical college, undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels.

“We are pleased to welcome RoosterBio to this new initiative,” said Krishnendu Roy, director of CMaT and the Robert A. Milton chair professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “The center will develop new technologies needed to use living cells in standardized, affordable therapies by clinicians to serve large numbers of patients worldwide. We are very excited about how this could impact patients and the industry in the United States and around the world.”

Beyond Georgia Tech, the center includes major university partners – the University of Georgia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus – as well as affiliate partners such as the University of Pennsylvania, Emory University, the Gladstone Institutes and Michigan Technological University. Additional international academic partners, as well as industry and state organizations, are also critical collaborators in the effort.

Source: https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/06/prweb15556125.htm