We have many new people coming into ACT, some are new to investing while others are seasoned investors but new to ACT. I see the same question(s) being asked by both so this is an attempt to dial in on
ACT's strategy with hESC's. First of all folks, I find all of this scientific and very technical processes and procedures challenging too, so don't feel like the lone ranger. I searched for something that I thought would best describe ACT's ES cell technology approach and felt the two paragraph below essentially covered most if not all the resaons ACT is pursuing this technology in a big way. I have bolded some words in the paragraph below and provided a glossary. Once you understand the vocabulary and re-read paragraphs applying the definitions it should jump out at you a little better, it did for me.
"We believe that solving the potential rejection of ES cells in patients is the greatest scientific obstacle to developing successful therapeutics. Our research and technologies are focused on solving this obstacle by creating stem cell therapeutics with compatible tissues. Compatible tissues are referred to as being histocompatible."
"The strategic focus of our human ES cell technology is to produce cell lines that are both histocompatible with the patient and pluripotent. We have numerous proprietary technologies that we believe will generate histocompatible, pluripotent stem cells for patient-specific application. These cells maximize the potential for effective use as transplants to replace diseased or destroyed cells in human patients. If successfully developed, our cellular reprogramming technologies will make it possible to produce cells that have the proliferative capacity of young cells, have specific therapeutic application, and are immunologically compatible with the patient."
histocompatible
•The immunological characteristic of cells or tissue that causes them to be tolerated by another cell or tissue; that allows some tissues to be grafted effectively to others.
pluripotent
Having the ability to give rise to all of the various cell types of the body.
(ACT's)
cellular reprogramming technologies
This research program involves development of therapies based on the use of genetically identical pluripotent stem cells generated by our cellular reprogramming technologies. These technologies can be used to generate patient-specific pluripotent cells and tissues for transplantation. We believe our technology platform will enable the transformation of a patient's cells into pluripotent ES cells that are histocompatible with the patient and have the potential to be differentiated into any of the over 200 different human cell types that may be therapeutically relevant in treating diseased or destroyed tissues in human patients. We expect that our cellular reprogramming technologies will offer a new avenue for the introduction of targeted genetic modifications in cells and for the regeneration of cell lifespan, thereby making youthful cells available for aging patients. The combination of these advances, the ability to produce young cells of certain kinds that are histocompatible with the patient, is a core potential application of our technology. We believe these cellular reprogramming technologies will be effective therapies where there is time to prepare customized therapy through reprogramming of the patient's own cells.
Some of the technologies that support our cellular reprogramming program are somatic cell nuclear transfer, chromatin transfer, factor reprogramming, and fusion technologies.
