Recently at BioPharm America 2016 in Boston, September 13-15, biotech start-up company Asymmetrex announced its new AlphaSTEM Test contract service for counting adult tissue stem cells. In addition to applications for pharmaceutical drug evaluations, the company highlighted applications of the new service for stem cell medicine, gene and gene-editing therapeutics, and general stem cell biomedical research.
Asymmetrex Announces a New Adult Tissue Stem Cell Counting Contract Service to Pharmaceutical and Stem Cell Medical Companies at BioPharm America 2016 in Boston
Asymmetrex, LLC is a Boston-based start-up company whose three years of existence are benchmarked by yearly attendance to BioPharm America conferences in Boston. A signature feature of BioPharm conferences is pre-arranged one-on-one meetings primarily among pharma companies, pharma investors, and pharma suppliers. In addition, there are workshops for new companies to hone their business pitch skills, to gain knowledge of reigning and emerging industry trends, and to give presentations of their business vision and progress.
For the past three years, while developing the first technology able to count adult tissue stem cells, Asymmetrex Director James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. has attended BioPharm America in Boston to update the company’s progress, increase its visibility, and extend its business network. In 2014, the company’s new AlphaSTEM Test technology was largely a concept that existed only as computer models of a new computational simulation method for counting adult tissue stem cells. In 2015, Sherley shared with conference participants experimental data to validate the company’s 2014 projections. In the 2016 conference, he announced that the company is now actively recruiting clients for a new adult tissue stem cell counting contract service.
Pharmaceutical companies are a major client group targeted for the new service. By counting tissue stem cells, drug candidates that are stem cell-toxic can be identified by the new AlphaSTEM Test service. Stem cell-toxic drugs cause chronic organ failure, which accounts for an estimated half of drug failures due to safety concerns. Currently, induction of chronic organ failure is detected by animal studies and clinical trials. Deployment of the AlphaSTEM Test service would identify such ill-fated drug candidates earlier and at a greatly reduced cost. Asymmetrex estimates that widespread adoption of its new contract service could save the U.S. pharmaceutical industry $4-5 billion each year.
A second major application for the new contract service is the determination of adult tissue stem cell dose. In current stem cell treatments, whether in unregulated private clinics, or in approved therapies like bone marrow stem cell and cord blood stem cell transplantation, or in FDA-approved clinical trials, the dose of the treating stem cells is unknown. Asymmetrex Director Sherley expressed to BioPharm America 2016 participants that the lack of stem cell dose data is an unmet need that is stifling progress in stem cell science and stem cell medicine. Sherley envisioned that, “By BioPharm America 2017, rapid adoption of Asymmetrex’s new tissue stem cell counting service could begin a revolution of change not only in how stem cell medicine is performed, but also in how it is regarded.” In a recent interview with Clinical Trials Arena, Sherley discussed the essential elements of this advance in anticipation of addressing an upcoming November Summit on Preclinical Development Operations in Boston.
About Asymmetrex
Asymmetrex, LLC is a Massachusetts life sciences company with a focus on developing technologies to advance stem cell medicine. Asymmetrex’s founder and director, James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. is an internationally recognized expert on the unique properties of adult tissue stem cells. The company’s patent portfolio contains biotechnologies that solve the two main technical problems – production and quantification – that have stood in the way of successful commercialization of human adult tissue stem cells for regenerative medicine and drug development. In addition, the portfolio includes novel technologies for isolating cancer stem cells and producing induced pluripotent stem cells for disease research purposes. Currently, Asymmetrex’s focus is employing its technological advantages to develop and market facile methods for monitoring adult stem cell number and function in stem cell transplantation treatments and in pre-clinical assays for drug safety.
Leave a Reply