SBIR/STTR Award attributes
ABSTRACT Bone marrow represents a rich source of diverse stemprogenitor and other cells of clinical and research interest including hematopoietic stem cellsHSCand mesenchymal stem cellsMSCdendritic cellsT cellsnatural killerNKcellsB cells and othersCurrentlythese cells are only recovered from living donors through bone marrow aspiration or peripheral blood mobilizationOssium Health is developing the first clinical and research bank of bone marrow derived cells from deceased organ and tissue donorsWhile the concept of utilizing this resource for bone marrow cells was first described overyears agothe ability to recover viable material efficiently and the infrastructure necessary to achieve this at even a modest scale simply has not existedOssium Health has overcome this by establishing a robust ecosystem comprised of a world class tissue processorand Phase III partnermajor organ procurement agencies and innovation tofor the first timeallow recovery and banking of this plentiful source of potentially life saving cellsHoweverfor this bank to reach its full potentialfurther efficiencies must be advanced and implementedThis Phase I study aims to developsmart bakinginnovations by optimizing methods of cryopreserving intact marrow in situ within whole bones to allow time for infectious diseasesterility andif requiredHLA testing prior to investing in fully processing donor bones to isolate cellular componentsThis innovative work will also provide early guidance towards cryopreservation of more complex tissues such as vascular composite allograftsVCAAdditionallythis study will develop an enhanced method for recovering the initial target populationsHSC and MSCwhich may increase efficiency by as much asdrastically reducing cost and allowing more readily available and less expensive clinical grade and high quality research material to be available to meet the growing demands of gene therapytissue engineering and basic science investigation NARRATIVE Bone marrow is a rich source of many cell types with the potential to address numerous currently intractable diseasesMany studies have demonstrated the need for a large and genetically diverse source of these cells as well as the therapeutic benefits of minimally manipulating the cells before treating patientsOssium Health has developed a robust system for obtaining living bone marrow cells from thedonors each year who gift tissues and organs following their deathOssium is proposing to develop innovative methods that will reduce the costs of deceased donor bone marrow cell isolationresulting in andltthe cost and andltthe time to process each specimenThese life saving and life enhancing cells will be banked and made available to physicians and biomedical researchers for treating seriously ill patients and discovering new cures
