Pluristem Therapeutics Inc (PSTI)

[SuperSquirrel]

"That is what’s unique, and it all started when Meretzki was studying biotechnology and chemical engineering at Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, about 15 years ago. What if it were possible, he thought, to grow cells in three dimensions rather than the traditional two-dimension method?

“Many people grow cells two-dimensionally in a petri dish, in which you put the cells and they grow across the dish in a mono layer. But in our body, nothing is 2-D. What we’ve found is that the moment you take 2-D cells and grow them in 3-D, they behave completely differently,” the Israeli doctor and scientist said.

Meretzki’s research group was the first in the world to grow cells in a 3-D culture. He went on to found Pluristem Therapeutics (Nasdaq:PSTI), a biotechnology company that develops off-the-shelf cell therapies for a variety of human diseases. That was 11 years ago. It's now a public company worth about $200 million and employing about 150 people in Haifa.

Pluristem takes a small amount of cells from discarded placentas after childbirth and uses them to grow a larger amount specifically for people who suffer from peripheral arterial disease, or problems with blood flow to the legs. The cells are injected into the leg and ultimately promote the growth of new blood vessels.

“After a few days the cells disappear, but you have a bypass of the block of the blood vessels that you have in your leg,” Meretzki said.

Results of the first clinical trial in Israel and Germany are positive: Of 20 patients who would otherwise have required leg amputations, only one lost the limb."

http://www.ibtimes.com/israels-medical-startups-can-regrow-bones-can-they-do-so-money-1251649#