Miromatrix, Inc. has one official employee, zero money, and nothing to develop — yet. But make no mistake: everyone wants a piece of it, and Minnesota officials hope the fledgling company will regenerate the state’s medical industry. Miromatrix is close to signing a license agreement with the University of Minnesota to commercialize the regenerative tissue work of Doris Taylor, PhD, director of the university’s Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCVR). Two years ago, the star university scientist drew international attention for successfully growing — and keeping alive — a rat’s beating heart in a jar. (See previous e-News post.) Taylor’s work fueled hopes that scientists can one day grow replacement organs for patients who would typically wait for transplants. U-Minnesota spun out Taylor’s company in December 2009.
Taylor and her team successfully grew the rat’s heart in a jar by stripping the cells off a dead rat’s heart and injecting cells from a live rat into the organ. In addition, Taylor designed a bioreactor that could successfully nurture the nascent heart with blood and oxygen in a sterile environment. More importantly, the technology creates matrix structures that can deliver the right number of cells to an injury, attract new cells, and keep the cells alive so they develop into tissue and, eventually, organs that the patient’s body will more readily accept. “The cells itself are not the whole solution,” Taylor says.
It’s difficult to overstate Miromatrix’s importance to Minnesota. If successful, some say the company could spark a biotechnology boom in the state the same way Earl Baaken’s homemade pacemaker launched Minnesota’s dominance in implantable heart devices 40-plus years ago. State leaders who once paid little attention to homegrown start-ups are now scrambling to craft a package of financial incentives to ensure that Miromatrix stays local. To generate sales, Miromatrix CEO Robert Cohen says the company will operate two businesses: one to develop the core technology and the other to sublicense Taylor’s work to other companies. The first product launch will likely be biological cardiac patches that can repair diseased heart tissue after a heart attack. As for sublicensing, Taylor envisions other biotech companies will use her technology to develop skin grafts for burn victims or cosmetic applications such as breast reconstruction after mastectomy. “It’s exciting to see this moving forward but it’s also a little scary,” Taylor says. “There’s a lot of science yet to be done.”
Source: Med City News