LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (OTCBB:ACTC) announced today that the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the company an SBIR Phase 1 Small Business Grant. The company will use the grant proceeds to conduct research that will allow for rapid labeling and purification of specific lineage restricted cells (LRCs) in cultures of differentiating human embryonic stem cells. If successful, the research will help the company more rapidly develop new regenerative therapies for a variety of indications including cardiovascular disease as well for commercialization of the LRCs and their peptide-targeting agents as research reagents. The research aims to create a process by which specific markers can be identified that will act like nametags allowing LRCs to be identified and then purified. With such markers, unique populations of cells can be isolated so that the benefits of these cells can be tested. The research grant from the NIH follows a previous NIH STTR grant award to ACT for a research project from the organization’s National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) announced in January 2007.
