The National Sciences and Engineering Research
Council of Canada has funded a
University of Victoria project aimed at
collaborating with RepliCel to optimize cell culture and
manufacturing technologies
VANCOUVER and VICTORIA, BC, Oct. 18,
2018 /CNW/ - RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. (OTCQB: REPCF)
(TSXV: RP) (FRA: P6P2) ("RepliCel" or the "Company") is pleased to
announce it has signed a collaborative research project agreement
with the University of Victoria
("UVic") in Victoria, B.C.,
Canada. The project will be
co-funded through a grant from the National Science and Engineering
Research Council of Canada
("NSERC") under the NSERC Collaborative Research and Development
("CRD") program.
The collaboration will focus on approaches to optimize cell
culture platforms, such as those employed in RepliCel's cell
therapy manufacturing, for eventual commercial-scale production.
The project aims to employ microfluidic technology and advanced
materials to develop an innovative platform for larger scale
adherent cell culture in small volumetric footprints.
The project will be led by UVic's Dr. Mohsen Akbari, Assistant Professor at the
University of Victoria and Director of
the Laboratory for Innovations in Microengineering (LiME).
Co-leading the project will be RepliCel's Chief Scientific Officer,
Dr. Kevin McElwee who is also
Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bradford, West
Yorkshire, UK.
"We are very pleased to have NSERC CRD support to work with Dr.
Akbari and his team at UVic. He is one of the world's emerging
experts on biomedical engineering and the employment of advanced
materials and micro-technologies for cell and tissue culture. The
collaboration represents a unique opportunity to leverage his
expertise and non-dilutive grant funding to innovate around
RepliCel's technologies in ways expected to improve the Company's
eventual commercial-scale manufacturing," stated RepliCel President
and CEO, R. Lee Buckler.
The two-year NSCERC CRD funding commitment and collaboration
agreement with UVic may result in publications, patents, and/or the
development of technologies with potential applications and value
broader than RepliCel's immediate uses. New intellectual property
arising from the project will be the sole and exclusive property of
UVic with a fully paid, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to
RepliCel for any commercial purposes. RepliCel has the option to
negotiate an exclusive license to such intellectual property from
UVic for commercial purposes important to the Company.
About Dr. Mohsen
Akbari
Dr. Mohsen
Akbari received his PhD (2011) in Applied Sciences from
Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, British Columbia). He also
conducted research from 2012-2015 as a postdoctoral fellow at
Brigham and Women's Hospital
(Boston, USA), Harvard Medical
School, and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired
Engineering. Dr. Akbari is currently an Assistant Professor of
Mechanical Engineering at the University of
Victoria, Canada. He is
also affiliated with Center for Biomedical Research (CBR) and
Centre for Advanced Materials and Related Technology (CAMTEC) at
the University of Victoria. His
research lies at the interface of cellular biology, biomaterials,
and microtechnologies with a focus on the biofabrication of
engineered tissue substitutes for regenerative medicine,
development of biomimetic tissue models using microengineering
techniques for disease modeling and drug discovery, and development
of advanced drug delivery systems for therapeutic applications.
Dr. Akbari has 46 peer-reviewed articles (citations=+1650, h
index=21) in high impact journals including Science Translational
Medicine, Nature Microtechnologies and Nanoengineering,
Biotechnology Advances, and Advanced Materials, three book
chapters, three patent applications/disclosures and more than 30
conference presentations in prestigious conferences such as µTAS,
World Biomaterials Congress, and IMECE, and ASME. Dr. Akbari is the
recipient of several institutional, national, and international
awards such as the British Columbia Innovation Award, the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) postdoctoral fellowship, and
the Kaiser Foundation Award. Recently, he was recognized as a
rising Canadian star in global health.
About RepliCel Life Sciences
RepliCel is a
regenerative medicine company focused on developing cell therapies
for aesthetic and orthopedic conditions affecting what the Company
believes is approximately one in three people in industrialized
nations, including aging/sun-damaged skin, pattern baldness, and
chronic tendon degeneration. These conditions, often
associated with aging, are caused by a deficit of healthy cells
required for normal tissue healing and function.
The Company's product pipeline is comprised of RCT-01 for tendon
repair, RCS-01 for skin rejuvenation, and RCH-01 for hair
restoration. RCH-01 is currently being co-developed with, and under
exclusive license by, Shiseido for certain Asian countries. All
product candidates are based on RepliCel's innovative technology,
utilizing cell populations isolated from a patient's healthy hair
follicles. RepliCel has also developed a proprietary injection
device, RCI-02, optimized for the administration of its products
and licensable for use with other dermatology applications.
Please visit www.replicel.com for additional
information.
Forward-looking information
Certain statements in this
news release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the
expectations of management regarding the results of the project
outlined in this release. Forward-looking statements consist of
statements that are not purely historical, including any statements
regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the
future. Forward looking statements in this news release include:
statements relating to the statements that (i) data from this
project is expected to improve the Company's eventual
commercial-scale manufacturing; and (iii) the results will improve
our product manufacturing, clinical outcomes, and assays critical
to regulatory approval and commercialization. These
statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks
which may cause actual results and the Company's plans and
objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the
forward-looking statements, including: risks that the Company's
products may not perform as, or have the benefits, expected; risks
that the Company's products may not be accepted and adopted by the
public; the risk that the Company will not obtain CE mark clearance
for its injector device; the risk that there will be delays
enrolling clinical trial participants or commencing any clinical or
research programs; the risk that the Company will receive negative
results from the Company's clinical trials; the effects of
government regulation on the Company's business; risks associated
with the Company obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals for
its various programs; risks associated with the Company's ability
to obtain and protect rights to its intellectual property; risks
and uncertainties associated with the Company's ability to raise
additional capital; and other factors beyond the Company's control.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in
the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee
future results, levels of activity or performance. Further, any
forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such
statement is made and, except as required by applicable law, the
Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on
which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of
unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it
is not possible for management to predict all of such factors and
to assess in advance the impact of such factors on the Company's
business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of
factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those
contained in any forward-looking statement. Readers should consult
all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to
the risk factor disclosure outlined in the Company's annual report
on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and other periodic reports
filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission
on Edgar at www.sec.gov and with the British Columbia Securities
Commission on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture
Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this release.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/replicel-announces-federal-grant-funding-for-collaboration-with-the-university-of-victoria-canada-300732071.html
SOURCE RepliCel Life Sciences Inc.
