The field of stem cells (Cellular Medicine) is poised to revolutionize medicine, augmenting our longevity and immunity.
This week I joined with an incredible biotech rockstar, Bob Hariri, M.D., Ph.D, to announce a new company called Celularity.
Celularity is built on 20 years of research legacy by Dr. Hariri and his team. Bob’s mission has been to harness the power of the living cell to augment our biology, immunity and longevity. He is the Chairman and CEO, and I’ll support his efforts as Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman.
Celularity is being born above the line of “super credibility” with $250 million in funding from Celgene, United Therapeutics Corporation, Sorrento Therapeutics, Human Longevity, Inc., and a group of venture capitalists.
Joining the board are industry luminaries John Sculley of Apple and Pepsi-Cola, Bill Maris of Section 32 (previously founder of Google Ventures), and Andrew Von Eschenbach, the former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration.
Here is what Celularity is up to, and what it means to you...
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Biosourcing: “Saving your child’s Boot-disk”
Celularity owns and operates LifeBank, the world’s only repository of donated placenta cells and biomaterials.
“At your moment of birth, you are probably at the point of biological perfection,” says Dr. Bob Hariri. “Your system hasn't been exposed to all of those injurious stimuli, like electromagnetic radiation, chemicals, etc., and your biological software is uncorrupted.”
Stem cell banking allows us to capture stem cells with your original, uncorrupted DNA at birth, replicate them into a large number of future dosages and then freeze those doses. Hariri discovered that in addition to cord blood (the blood found in the umbilical cord of a newborn), the placenta of a newborn is an organ very rich in stem cells.
Rather than discard the leftovers of birth, placentas, if saved, may hold the key to a longer and healthier life.
For over 20 years, new parents have trusted LifeBank to bank their children's placental stem cells.
While traditional cord blood repositories, save the newborn’s hematopoietic stem cells (useful as a solution to hematopoietic cancers), banking your child’s placenta stem cells will provide them with an expanded range of options aimed at enhancing their health and longevity through future developments such as organ engineering.
Currently, cord blood and placental blood transplantation are accepted as standard therapies for more than 80 diseases including leukemias, lymphomas and myelomas.
When our two boys were born 6 years ago, we banked their placental stem cells with LifeBank.
If you (or anyone you know) are planning to have a child, I strongly encourage you to considering banking their placental stem cells, not just their cord-blood.
Cell Therapy
Celularity acts as a “biorefinery,” harnessing the power of the placenta to create therapies across autoimmune and degenerative disease, immuno-oncology and functional regeneration.
Using NK cells, CAR-T Cells and MSC stem cells derived from the placenta, Celularity creates transformative therapeutic options for complex medical conditions ranging from cancer to Crohn’s disease.
Celularity has over a dozen pre-clinical and clinical trials and Investigational New Drug applications (IND) in progress, and an intellectual property portfolio of more than 830 issued patents and over 1,800 cases filed.
Functional Regeneration
Celularity has pioneered the use of placental biomaterials as the building blocks upon which a range of transplantable and implantable products have been created for surgical and reconstructive applications.
Celularity’s BIOVANCE® and Interfyl™ products are used by physicians to facilitate a patient’s regenerative process. Both products are in the market today treating a broad range of serious wounds and burns, as well as being used in reconstructive and orthopedic surgical procedures.
Celularity has also developed groundbreaking methods to produce whole organs from natural and bioprinted scaffolds populated with stem cells derived from the placenta and is today working with leading companies such as United Therapeutics to bring organogenesis to the market.
Our Vision: Augmented Longevity & Immunity
Studies have shown that as we age, the population of stem cells resident in our organs and tissues declines exponentially diminishing our body’s ability to heal and repair itself. Moreover, during lifetime, our stem cells are damaged by environmental exposures, rendering them less effective and adaptable.
By replenishing our reservoir of stem cells — nature’s repair kit — on an ongoing basis, we can augment our longevity.
Celularity seeks to make 100 years old the new 60, and to provide people with maximal aesthetics, mobility, and cognition as they age. We believe the 20 years of science, research, and intellectual property pioneered by Celularity is the cornerstone for the coming longevity revolution.
Celularity, through its strategic partner Sorrento Therapeutics, has acquired a powerful tool set to engineer cells for broad immunotherapeutic applications. These include proprietary antibody and Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) constructs that will allow Celularity to offer the world’s first immunotherapeutic suite of products against validated and novel targets for cancer and immune disease. In addition, Celularity discovered a novel Natural Killer cell from the placenta and is actively developing therapeutic uses.
Celularity is developing the world’s first allogeneic off-the-shelf CAR-T cell receptor and CAR-NK products against a number of validated targets for immuno-oncology.
All of these elements together, form the basis for Celularity’s vision of Augmented Immunity.
I’m excited for the potential this this company and others in the Longevity Arena can yield, speeding us towards longevity escape velocity.
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