Introducing Theragenix: Gene-Based Tissue Regeneration

TherageniX, an NLC venture, delivers genes for tissue repair and regeneration.

Disease, injuries and aging can damage body tissues. There is an unmet need for novel therapies to enable tissue repair and regeneration. The use of gene therapy to provide biological cues to boost the body’s response has been shown to aid regeneration of skin, bone, muscle and cartilage. TherageniX, another venture from NLC, delivers genes which can instruct the body to regenerate tissues.

While any tissue can be targeted through the technology, TherageniX will initially focus on orthopedic applications, with the ambition of improving the outcomes for patients with bone loss, infection and disease. The transplantation of autologous bone is the gold standard bone repair strategy. However, this process has drawbacks in terms of limited availability of autologous bone for large defects, particularly in patients with diseased bone. There is ultimately insufficient regenerative capacity, and many bone implants fail due to poor integration, infection, or do not provide satisfactory functionality. TherageniX’s innovative solution will augment autologous bone grafts intraoperatively by delivering gene(s) of interest using a proprietary non-viral delivery system. The approach will improve regenerative capacity of the graft and is expected to lead to better functional outcomes, while reducing additional trauma at the donor site. The new therapy has additional benefits in terms of reduced waiting time for patients, reduced manufacturing costs and the possibility to provide an off-the-shelf solution. The intraoperative nature also makes it simpler and cost effective compared to other approaches requiring cell expansion that are laborious and capital intensive.

Anandkumar Nandakumar, CEO of TherageniX:

“The vision is to create a new type of bed that both increases autonomy and reduces care’’.

Anandkumar has several years’ experience in medtech, biotechnology, start-ups and scale-ups and a strong scientific connection to bone tissue engineering. His passion stems from working on products that make patients' lives better and address unmet needs. The patented technology is a combination of a proprietary non-viral delivery system with desired regenerative factor genes (e.g. VEGF and BMP; for vascularization and osteogenesis, respectively) and autologous bone marrow cells from the patient. The technology was developed by Dr. James Dixon and colleagues at the University of Nottingham School of Pharmacy and has been licensed to TherageniX. Dr. Dixon is a cell and molecular biologist, with specific expertise in intracellular delivery systems for the treatment of disease. TherageniX is excited to collaborate with Dr. Dixon’s group to improve the science and technology further and to translate this work into therapies for patients.

Dr. Dixon commented:

“Adapting our technology for a rapid application directly on grafts in the operating theatre has been a vision for our gene delivery platform. We hope that our system will generate a platform of transformative, economically viable and impactful approaches to clinical problems that remain poorly addressed in modern medicine.”

TherageniX is an early-stage venture with the first proof-of-concept in pre-clinical studies and is keen on further developing this technology and bringing it to the clinic.

For More Information

TherageniX : Website
Anandkumar Nandakumar | CEO | Linkedin
anand@theragenix.health

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