University of Leeds: Tissue Regenix receives €280K grant funding from the European Commission

Tissue Regenix, the regenerative medical device company, announces that it has received just over €280,000 grant funding from the European Commission.

The grant, provided under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), will be used to fund the development of dCELL® grafts for applications in cardiac and vascular surgery.

Antony Odell, Managing Director of Tissue Regenix, said: “We are pleased to have been chosen by the European Commission to receive this funding, a recognition which provides further validation for our technology platform as well as allowing us to explore additional opportunities to expand our product pipeline at minimum cost to the company.”

FP7 is the chief instrument through which the European Union supports research and development activities covering almost all scientific disciplines.

Tissue Regenix, the RegenMed Company, was incorporated in May 2006 to commercialise the academic research of Professor Eileen Ingham and Professor John Fisher from the University of Leeds in the field of tissue decellularisation. Its dCELL® Technology comprises a patented process which removes cells and other components from human and animal tissue allowing it to be used without anti-rejection drugs to replace worn out or diseased body parts.

The process comprised within the dCELL® Technology involves the production of biological scaffolds created by taking a piece of human or animal tissue that is equivalent to the diseased or damaged body part which is being replaced, treating such tissue with a series of gentle chemical washes and then sterilising it. The end product is a scaffold which can be stored under normal conditions at room temperature like any synthetic medical device and, when it is implanted into the body, it repopulates with the patient's own cells using natural biological repair mechanisms.

Tissue Regenix's strategy is to continue to use its core dCELL® Technology as a platform to develop a range of products using the established medical device regulatory pathway to deliver solutions to unmet clinical needs. The three priority markets for the application of the technology are: Vascular (e.g. Vascular Patches); Cardiac (e.g. Heart Valves); and Orthopaedics (e.g. Meniscus).