Introduction

Progentix BV, founded in 2004, is a Dutch life sciences company that develops an innovative platform technology based on an automated, closed bioreactor system to expand bone marrow derived adult mesenchymal stem cells.

This expansion system is stand-alone, simple-to-operate and does not require a complex laboratory environment. It can be placed within any hospital department, and is able to generate over 200 million expanded adult stem cells.

Adult stem cells can be used in regenerative medicine to treat various tissue disorders (such as bone and cartilage defects, cardiovascular disease and central neural system disorders) and as a screening platform for the discovery of new drugs, small molecules and genes.

Progentix focuses on the clinical use of adult stem cells for bone regeneration and for that reason also develops a unique range of synthetic osteoinductive biomaterial scaffolds.

Mission Statement

The mission of Progentix is to develop innovative technologies based on adult stem cells and appropriate scaffolds for the regeneration, reconstruction or augmentation of skeletal defects.

Background & Introduction

Therapeutic and drug discovery potential

From a therapeutic perspective the potential for adult stem cells is vast. They can be used to regenerate or replace many tissues of our body. Several experimental studies have already shown the potential of adult stem cells in the regeneration of infarcted heart muscle by injection of these cells near the infarcted site, and in the treatment of musculo-skeletal disorders, repairing large bone and cartilage defects. Other clinical applications currently being investigated are Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, adult stem cells have proven to be ideally suited for screening assays in drug discovery and identification of small molecules and genes.

An expansion system that yields controlled and reproducible results

The principal source of adult stem cells is bone marrow. But even here they are present in very small numbers. To be therapeutically effective, adult stem cells need to be isolated and expanded up to a million-fold. The major obstacle today is that there is no reliable method by which adult stem cells can be expanded to meaningful quantities in a controlled, reproducible and cost-effective way. Progentix’ system aims to overcome this obstacle. The platform technology developed by Progentix is based on an innovative closed automated bioreactor system that allows the expansion of adult stem cells under precisely defined and controlled conditions. This system is stand-alone, simple to operate and does not necessitate a complex laboratory environment. It can be placed within any hospital department and can generate over 200 million expanded adult stem cells.

Osteoinductive scaffolds for vital support

Since Progentix’ primary focus is on the regeneration of bone and cartilage tissue, it also develops a unique range of osteoinductive ceramic biomaterial scaffolds that can be used in regenerative medicine as synthetic bone grafts or tissue engineering scaffolds.