LyGenesis, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing allogenic cell therapies for large unmet needs, and Imagine Pharma, a biotechnology company focused on the development of its novel polypeptide (IMG-1) across three distinct platforms: Oral Delivery, Therapeutics, and Regenerative Medicine, announced today that they have entered into a joint research collaboration to develop novel cell therapies for patients with type 1 diabetes. The research collaboration will leverage Imagine Pharma's Type 1 Diabetes Activated Islet Progenitor Cells (T1D AIPCs) and LyGenesis' allogeneic cell therapy platform to develop therapies for type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes affects 1.45 million people in the United States with about 64,000 new diagnoses every year. Imagine Pharma announced its discovery of T1D AIPCs, a critical component for the potential treatment of T1D in the setting of an autologous cell transplantation, in June 2022. By utilizing Imagine Pharma's AIPCs as the cell source, combined with LyGenesis' use of the lymph node as a bioreactor to grow a functioning ectopic pancreas, the collaboration will enable rapid advancement of a preclinical proof of concept program for the potential treatment of type 1 diabetes.

"We're thrilled to announce our collaboration with Imagine Pharma to utilize their unique cell-source with our use of endoscopic ultrasound engraftment of cell therapies into the lymph node for the treatment of diabetes," said Dr. Michael Hufford, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at LyGenesis. "With our lead cell therapy already in clinic for the treatment of end stage liver disease (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04496479), Imagine Pharma's AIPCs hold remarkable promise to rapidly advance our pipeline of therapies."

"We envision that our novel cell population of AIPCs, used in conjunction with LyGenesis' cell therapy platform, holds breakthrough potential for the treatment of type 1 diabetes," said Ngoc Thai, MD, PhD, Founder, CMO and Co-CEO at Imagine Pharma.

 

Source:prnewswire.com

 

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