Pluristem Therapeutics Inc (PSTI)

[zzaatt]

Very impressive, not just the cash infusion (which is itself very nice)
but the recognition of Pluristem's technology as a worthy target of
this sort of research, AND the advantage, from an approval point of
view, of being able to track the therapeutic progress after cell infusion.

from announcement:

The goal of the nTRACK project, initiated and led scientifically by Prof. Rachela Popovtzer of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is to develop a safe, scalable, and highly sensitive nanotechnology-based imaging approach to enable non-invasive, whole body monitoring of injected stem cells in humans, thereby providing early predictions of cellular therapy treatment outcomes. The nTRACK consortium will utilize Pluristem’s PLX-PAD cells to predict treatment success for muscle regeneration following a gastrocnemius muscle injury. Final approval of the grant is subject to the finalization of the consortium and Horizon 2020 grant agreements.

bio from Univ.faculty page:
PROF. RACHELA POPOVTZER
Rachela Popovtzer is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and a member of the Bar-Ilan Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA), Israel. She received her B.Sc. degree in physics from BIU and her M.Sc. and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the University of Michigan with Prof. Raoul Kopelman. Popovtzer joined the faculty of Engineering in 2008, here she is currently the head of the Bioengineering track and the Laboratory for Nano-medicine. Rachela Popovtzer is a winner of numerous international grants and awards, such as the Intel Prize, the EU Environment and Living foundation Prize and the Atol Charitable Trust Fellow in Nano Medicine. Her current research interest focuses on the development of ’smart’ nanoprobes for theranostic applications.


From Dr.Popovtzer's shop:
http://www.popovtzerlab.com/
Contradictory results in clinical trials prevent the advancement and implementation of cell-based therapy. Thus, science must uncover the mystery which enveils the fate of transplanted cells.
To answer this need, we developed a technique for noninvasive cell tracking, applying gold nanoparticles and CT imaging. We further defined design principles for long-term and quantitative imaging of the therapeutic cells, in a mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. We show that the cells can be tracked over long periods of time using CT, detecting as few as 500 cells and successfully monitoring their functionality. We also used image analysis tools to accurately quantify the number of cells in the muscle.
This cell tracking technology has the potential to advance the future of cell therapy, and become an essential tool in pre-clinical, as well as clinical trials.