Power3, StemTroniX team up on stem cells
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HOUSTON—Power3 Medical Products Inc. recently announced it executed a letter of intent with StemTroniX Inc., a Texas-based stem cell therapy company that specializes in research, exploration and consolidation of stem cell technologies for use in autologous adult stem cell therapies and transplantations.
The two companies are far from strangers. Dr. Ira L. Goldknopf, president and chief scientific officer of Power3 Medical, and Helen R. Park, founder and director of StemTroniX, both worked at Advanced Bio/Chem Inc.—most of the assets of which Power3 acquired in 2004. Park, for her part, went on to "other things," she says, the most recent of which was to incorporate StemTroniX. She is also acting as interim CEO for Power3 right now.
Despite inking a deal, StemTroniX isn't officially off the ground yet as a company, Park says. The two companies should officially be working on their adult stem cell collaboration by mid-2009, but Park felt it was wise to start her new company on the best foot with a strong deal already in place as a foundation.
"We'll be doing adult stem cell therapy work overseas," she notes. "We have a medical director ready to come on when the company officially starts up, and he has medical privileges in Switzerland to do adult stem cell therapy."
One of the key reasons to team with Power3, aside from already knowing people within it, is because in addition to its diagnostic and drug target discovery work—in areas like cancer and neurodegenerative disease—the company is heavily focused on commercializing disease biomarkers and identifying protein biomarkers.
"In the stem cell therapy business, there is a huge need to know what makes the stem cells become and act like the organ they are aimed at—and those would be biomarkers," Park explains. "I personally feel that the biomarkers on stem cells will be one of the next big markets. There is a huge market for stems cells but you have to have a way to direct them and make them be more useful, and that lies in knowing and understanding the biomarkers."
The two companies are far from strangers. Dr. Ira L. Goldknopf, president and chief scientific officer of Power3 Medical, and Helen R. Park, founder and director of StemTroniX, both worked at Advanced Bio/Chem Inc.—most of the assets of which Power3 acquired in 2004. Park, for her part, went on to "other things," she says, the most recent of which was to incorporate StemTroniX. She is also acting as interim CEO for Power3 right now.
Despite inking a deal, StemTroniX isn't officially off the ground yet as a company, Park says. The two companies should officially be working on their adult stem cell collaboration by mid-2009, but Park felt it was wise to start her new company on the best foot with a strong deal already in place as a foundation.
"We'll be doing adult stem cell therapy work overseas," she notes. "We have a medical director ready to come on when the company officially starts up, and he has medical privileges in Switzerland to do adult stem cell therapy."
One of the key reasons to team with Power3, aside from already knowing people within it, is because in addition to its diagnostic and drug target discovery work—in areas like cancer and neurodegenerative disease—the company is heavily focused on commercializing disease biomarkers and identifying protein biomarkers.
"In the stem cell therapy business, there is a huge need to know what makes the stem cells become and act like the organ they are aimed at—and those would be biomarkers," Park explains. "I personally feel that the biomarkers on stem cells will be one of the next big markets. There is a huge market for stems cells but you have to have a way to direct them and make them be more useful, and that lies in knowing and understanding the biomarkers."
