Cynata Therapeutics

Cynata Therapeutics Limited is an Australian stem cell and regenerative medicine company that is developing a therapeutic stem cell platform technology, Cymerus™, using discoveries made at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM). UWM is a world-renowned leader in stem cell research, in particular for the work by Professor James Thomson's group, which included the first successful isolation of human embryonic stem cells in 1998, and the derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from human adult cells in 2007. Professor Igor Slukvin, a co-founder of Cynata, was also a member of the team that conducted UWM's pioneering iPSC research. Cynata's Cymerus™ platform stem cell technology is based upon extremely important and versatile stem cells known as mesenchymoangioblasts (MCAs). MCAs are a precursor of mesenchymal stem (or stromal) cells (MSCs) which are at the forefront of a new generation of treatments being investigated for such devastating diseases as osteoarthritis, Crohn’s disease and heart disease. Cynata’s proprietary technology utilizes iPSCs originating from an adult donor as the starting material for generating MCAs and in turn for manufacturing the MSC therapeutic product. Cynata will use the proprietary Cymerus™ technology to address a critical shortcoming in existing methods of production of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for therapeutic use, which is the ability to achieve economic manufacture at commercial scale. This opens up a wide range of therapeutic and manufacturing possibilities for the Company. The Cymerus™ technology has several characteristics which makes it ideal for the development of cell-based therapeutics. Most critically, the Cymerus™ manufacturing process ensures that cells for therapeutic use can be produced in virtually limitless quantities. This means that Cynata will not have to constantly seek out fresh stem cell donors to fuel its manufacturing demands. This has the potential to create a new standard in the emergent arena of regenerative medicine and stem cell therapeutics and provides Cynata with both a unique differentiator and an important competitive position.