BIOTECHNOLOGY
indicating an ability to treat individuals without determining their degree of exposure to radiation,” he says. Another project is in collaboration with
the US Department of Defense, testing the cells as a prophylactic countermeasure against ARS, administered prior to radiation exposure. Tese animal studies demonstrated that the cell therapy product, administered 24 hours before
radiation exposure, and again 72 hours after exposure, resulted in a significant increase in survival rates, from 4% survival rate in the placebo group to 74% in the treated group. In addition, the data shows an increase in recovery of blood lineages (platelets, neutrophils, white blood cells, and lymphocytes) and a favourable safety profile.
“Te cells are grown using a proprietary
three-dimensional expansion technology, an environment simulating the human body, that can be used to grow PLX cells in mass quantities with batch-to-batch consistency at the company’s FDA, EMA and PMDA-approved, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility,” says Yanay. “We seek to expand our product for use with respect to additional medical conditions with the goal of bringing innovative, safe and effective treatments for patients around the world,” he adds.
SPACE FOOD Elsewhere, the Finnish food technology start-up Solar Foods is currently engaged in a novel project with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a system for producing proteins for space flights to Mars. As Kimmo Isbjörnssund, head of the ESA Business Incubation Centre Finland, explains, the ongoing space incubation project is focused on further identifying the nutritional needs for long- term space missions, as well as creating a concept for zero gravity food production processes while solving the nutrient
Solar Foods’ bioreactor
recovery challenge and ‘describing the overall concept for food from CO2
and
electricity on Mars and other long-term missions.’ “On space missions, there is as
ABOVE: Protein product from Solar Foods RIGHT: Kimmo
Isbjörnssund , head of the ESA Business Incubation Centre Finland
even greater disconnection from land use – that is, agriculture – to produce food. Terefore, the systems to produce food need to be more autonomous and independent from external supplies,” says Isbjörnssund. “As much as possible needs to be generated and nutrients recycled on-site. Solar Foods may be such a solution and the purpose of ESA Business Incubation is to learn more about this,” he adds. Solar Foods was initially established to
commercialise research carried out at the VTT Technical research centre of Finland and LUT University (Lappeenranta- Lahti University of Technology),which was focused on developing a solution for converting emission-free electricity and CO2
captured from air into edible
calories. According to Pasi Vainikka, co-founder and CEO at the company, a microbial cell was identified as the best natural ‘factory’ to achieve such a complex task. Te result was the creation of Solein, a protein created by harvesting naturally occurring single cells – or microbes – and immersing them in a liquid growth medium inside a fermenter very similar to those used in breweries and wineries.
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