Press
December 2010
Mandala Biosciences awarded SBIR grant for discovery of new hypothalamic hormones
Mandala Biosciences has received a $239k phase 1 Small Business Innovative Research award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to identify new hormones involved in the regulation of critical human body functions such as weight control,immune system regulation, digestion and sleep cycles. The project is in collaboration with Dr. Andrew Baird of UCSD Medical Center and will involve the use of gene identification technology that is designed to identify new peptide hormones that are processed from larger proteins. The project goal is to identify new and novel secreted proteins made in the hypothalamus, a complex brain region that links the body’s perception of its environment with its regulation of body functions such as temperature, immune response, blood pressure, appetite, digestion, and sleep. It regulates the master gland of the body, the pituitary, and effects emotions and behavior. The project will involve the identification of new proteins and active peptides from the hypothalamus using novel protein display and selection technology. We will develop and commercialize antibodies and detection kits for the novel proteins and assess their diagnostic and therapeutic potential for treating a variety of conditions including obesity, wound repair, and resistance to infection.
May 2010
Mandala Biosciences participates in study demonstrating reversal of aging by cellular reprogramming
In a study published in the journal, Regenerative Medicine (May 2010, Vol. 5, No. 3, Pages 345-363), scientists from Ontario Cancer Institute (Toronto, Canada), BioTime, Inc.(Alameda, California), Sanford Burnham Institute for Medical Research (La Jolla, CA), Sierra Sciences (Reno, NV), The Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA) and Mandala Biosciences, LLC (San Diego, CA) have discovered that reprogramming of human cells back to an embryonic stem cell-like state is capable of not only reversing the developmental state of the cell but the cellular age as well. Reprogramming of ordinary adult cells typically from skin offers enormous potential for regenerative cell therapies because the resulting induced pluripotent (iPS) cells are genetically matched to the patient to avoid immune rejection. According to Mandala Biosciences founder and co-author, Dr. David Larocca, “This study answers a critical question about the practical applications of iPS cell technology. Until now it was not clear whether reprogramming from an older person’s cells would result in “old stem cells” that would have limited proliferation and therefore limited restorative capacity for the treatment of degenerative diseases. In this study, we looked at many commonly used iPS cell lines that were made by reprogramming adult cells. We found that they did not have the long telomeres (chromosome ends) that are typical of young stem cells at the beginning of life. By reprogramming mature cells that were derived from embryonic stem cells and then aged in the laboratory (resulting in short telomeres), we found that it is possible to reverse the cellular aging process using reprogramming. We were able to identify an iPSC colony that had high telomerase activity and produced an iPS cell line that was capable of telomere lengthening with each cell division until the iPS cells had telomeres as long as the originating embryonic stem cells”.
September 2009
Mandala Biosciences LLC awarded $573,888 in SBIR funding from NIH
Mandala Biosciences was recently awarded 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grants,1R43HD061145-01 from the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) and 1R43GM088984-01, from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences NIGMS) of NIH. This funding will help Mandala Biosciences develop key innovative core technologies in stem cell biology. The NICHD award entitled "Double-Gated Selection of Ligands that Target Surface Markers of Differentiation" is aimed at developing a novel cell selection technology. The technology identifies proteins that target tissue-specific precursor stem cells. The intitial study targets precusors of heart muscle as a proof of concept. This technology will enable researchers to develop improved methods of producing therapeutic cells from patient-specific stem cells which have a lower risk of immune rejection. The NIGMS award entitled "Antibodies Targeting Novel Surface Antigens on Pluripotent Stem Cells" will mine the human genome to map the uncharted territory of early differentiating stem cells. Unlike mature cells that can easily be distinguished from one another by size, shape, and known surface antigens, early precursor cells all look alike and little is known about their unique surface antigens. This NIH funded project will produce a surface map that will provide investigators with a "paint by numbers" method of identifying each type of precursor cell in a mixed population of early precursor stem cells.. Dr. David Larocca (Mandala Biosciences) is the principal investigator on both awards and Drs. Mark Mercola and Evan Snyder (Burnham Institute for Medical Research) are co-investigators.
April 2009
BioTime, Mandala Biosciences, and Burnham Institute for Medical Research share 4.7 million dollar Early Translational Research Award from California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)
On April 29th, CIRM, approved $67 million in funding for 15 research grants aimed at accelerating the the translation of basic stem cell research into clinical therapies to treat patients with degenerative diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, ALS, MS, and heart disease. BioTime, Inc. was awarded $4.7 million for a research grant entitled "Addressing the Cell Purity and Identity Bottleneck Through Generation and Expansion of Clonal Human Embryonic Progenitor Cell Lines". The project is aimed at developing reagents and processes to isolate progenitor cells in a purified state. Importantly, these processes will be applied to cells derived from both established stem cell lines as well as patient specific cells for personalized cell therapies. Mandala Biosciences, LLC will participate in a $1.0 million subaward which is aimed at developing reagents for purifying embryonic progenitor cell lines based on cell surface markers. The Burnham Institute will participate in a $0.75 million subaward aimed at identifying the differentiation potential of various progenitor cell lines. Dr. Michael West (CEO at BioTime) is the principal investigator on the 3 year project. Dr. David Larocca (CEO at Mandala Biosciences) and Dr. Evan Snyder (Burnham Institute) will lead the projects at their respective institutions. According to Dr. Larocca, "Cell purity is absolutely essential for the safety and efficacy of any cell based therapy. This research award represents exactly the kind of collaborative effort between the biotech industry and academia that I believe will allow us to overcome critical technical hurdles and thus accelerate the translation of stem cell research to cell-based therapies".
September 2008
Mandala Biosciences LLC awarded $232,539 in SBIR funding from NIH
Mandala Biosciences was recently awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant,1R43GM085964-01, from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of NIH to discover and develop new tools and technologies for identifying novel stem cell markers. The phase I study is designed to as a proof of principle of a new technology for identifying biomarkers on the surface of stem cells as they grow and mature into functional adult cells. Pluripotent stem cells are becoming more available to researchers thanks to recent advances in cellular reprogramming that can revert an adult skin cell back to a pluripotent cell with the potential to divide indefinitely and become any cell type in the human body. A key challenge remains of how to to direct the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells toward mature cell types of therapeutic value such as heart, blood vessel,skin and nerve cells. The markers that are developed as a result of this project will allow scientists to distinguish one type of early precursor cell from another.
June 2008
Mandala CEO, Dr. David Larocca, presents at Understanding Aging Conference in Los Angeles.
The weekend long meeting brought together leading scientists in the field of regenerative medicine and biomedical engineering to discuss progress toward understanding and treating aging. It started with a session open to the public on public policy implications of successfully postponing aging. The rest of the conference focussed on biomedical and engineering approaches including stem cell therapies that are being developed to treating aging and degenerative diseases. Dr. Larocca discussed new tools and technologies for identifying and tracking specific types of stem cells. Links to videos of the speakers presentations including Dr. Larocca's talk can be found on the conference web site.
