Technology Opportunities

Highlights

• Trauma or diseases of mesenchymal tissues such as ligaments and tendons are prevalent, considerably debilitating, affect the quality of life among populations worldwide and are significant financial burden, costing billions of dollars annually.
• Damage to mesenchymal tissues, such as ligament, tendon, cartilage, meniscus, intervertebral discs, periodontal tissues and muscle, cannot regenerate and often, the damaged tissue does not returns to its original state.

• Recombinant human amelogenin protein (rHAM+), produced by the team, recruits mesenchymal stem cells to the injured site, which in-tern differentiate to regenerate the affected tissues.

Our Innovation

Regeneration of damaged ligaments, periodontium - the tooth attachment apparatus: alveolar bone, periodontal ligament and cementum, cartilage and other mesenchymal tissues by the delivery of amelogenin to the site.

Key Features

• A biologic therapy for regeneration of damaged mesenchymal tissues.
• The recombinant human amelogenin protein (rHAM+), is produced in a eukaryotic system, and hence, undergoes post translation modifications.
• Easy to use: a single application of rHAM+ induces significant regeneration.
• rHAM+ recruits MSCs to the injured site, which then differentiate to form the functional regenerated tissues. Tissue regeneration induced by rHAM+ depends on the specific niche.
• MSCs engineered to highly express amelogenin have an even better potential for successful regeneration due to possible secretion of amelogenin from the engineered MSCs (autocrine and paracrine activity).

Our novel results show for the first time the ability of the recombinant human amelogenin protein (rHAM+) to biologically regenerate experimentally torn medial collateral ligament, in a rat model. Three months after the transection, the rHAM+ treated MCL regained its mechanical strength and stiffness as compared to the normal, untouched ligament, and was significantly stronger and stiffer than the control transected MCL.

Development Milestones

Seeking funding for ongoing research.

The Opportunity

• Can be used for the regeneration of tissues such as tendons, ligaments, cartilage, intervertebral disc, heart muscle, and other mesenchymal tissues damaged by injury or ageing.
• Can be used in periodontal repair.