Challenge
The knee is one of the largest and most complex joints in our body. The cartilage in our knees is a crucial part that does the most load-bearing of the weight. To this date, cartilage damage in the knee affects millions of people worldwide with a continued rise in incidence. Since cartilage does not have self-healing capabilities, the mobility of these patients is on the path to be drastically and permanently impeded.
Opportunity
Currently, the only conventional solutions are symptoms (pain, stiffness) management, microfracture and in the end, micentirely replacing the joint with a prosthesis. Lately, cell therapies have emerged as a solution to regenerate cartilage e.g. tissue engineered autologous chondrocyte implantations (ACIs). ACIs, though less invasive, face the problem that recovery is very slow and produce low quality cartilage. This makes that these implants often fail to integrate with the surrounding tissue which results to failure rates up to 36%.
Solution
Researchers from the Strasbourg University and Inserm have invented ARTiREG. This new cell therapy aims to improve the cell approach by an innovative scaffold that houses Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for optimal regeneration of the cartilage. By combining this patented scaffold together with growth factors and the MSCs, the product ensures fast recovery and high quality cartilage.
Status
This approach has been proven to reach superior bone tissue formation in vitro as well as in vivo, following implantation in a animal bone defect model. As the product is finished with the preclinical phase, it is ready to initiate the phase I/II trials.
Meet the team
Roland Zegger
Venture Partner at NLC
Roland joined NLC in March 2015. He is a trained pharmacist, has worked in several pharmaceutical companies, and has broad experience in marketing and sales functions as well as general management. As Venture Partner, Roland focuses on building innovative companies and strengthening NLC’s abilities to bring innovations to healthcare.