Sernova Corp. to Present at BioPartnering North America Conference

LONDON, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - January 25, 2010) - Sernova Corp. (TSX VENTURE: SVA), a company focused on product development and commercialization of innovative medical technologies for cell therapies, announced that its President & Chief Executive Officer will present an overview of the company’s technology and milestones for 2010 to a select group of biotech industry investors and potential alliance partners at the BioPartnering North America Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Sernova’s presentation is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. January 26, 2010.

Last year, Sernova:

 -- Appointed Dr. Philip Toleikis as President & CEO and under his leadership, -- Transformed and advanced its corporate strategy around its proprietary Cell Pouch System™ to position the company as a leader in enabling cell therapies, -- Successfully raised CDN$1.4 million to support this strategy through a combination of equity financings and a financial contribution from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), -- Recruited key scientific staff to execute the strategic plan and several internationally recognized leaders in the business of cell therapy for Sernova’s Board of Directors and Business Advisory Board, -- Demonstrated long-term safety and efficacy of the prototype Cell Pouch System™ in a small animal model of diabetes as reported at the International Islet Transplant Conference in Venice, -- Designed, manufactured and filed patents on the human-scaled Cell Pouch System™, -- And initiated an NRC-sponsored key proof of concept study in a large animal model of diabetes to optimize and assess the safety and efficacy of the human-scaled Cell Pouch System ™. 

The proprietary Cell Pouch System™, Sernova’s lead technology is a novel, matchbook size medical device that is placed under the skin in a simple procedure. Once implanted, the device becomes a vascularised organ-like structure and provides the microcirculation essential to early function and long-term survival of transplanted therapeutic cells. Sernova believes the Cell Pouch System™ offers a valuable potential improvement to the current practise of injecting therapeutic cells directly into the bloodstream. Sernova’s first application is diabetes, where the Cell Pouch System™ is expected to prevent the instant blood-mediated inflammatory reaction (IBMIR) believed to rapidly destroy up to an estimated 90% of the transplanted islets and in addition eliminate serious complications such as islet-induced blood clotting and liver thrombosis. These improvements, once verified, could lead to the treatment of multiple patients from a single pancreas donation and improved safety and efficacy for islet transplantation.

During 2010, Sernova will seek to continue to build corporate value by advancing its core technologies toward human clinical trials and commercialization. Key objectives targeted for the upcoming year are:

 -- To establish research collaborations with one or more leading transplant centres to conduct non-human primate studies of the Cell Pouch System™. Sernova is in the process of establishing relationships with groups who can conduct GLP-quality preclinical studies as requested by Health Canada and the US-FDA. Such clinical centres also currently perform the “Edmonton-protocol” transplantations and are aware of IBMIR and other complications with this procedure. -- To complete the current large animal study which is funded by a financial contribution of up to $486,000 from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). The study involves the implantation of Sernova’s novel medical device followed by islets into diabetic pigs to establish device parameters and optimize performance. The study commenced in August, 2009 and is expected to be completed in Q3 2010 and will generate data in part to support regulatory filings in support of a future Phase I/II human clinical study. Sernova anticipates reporting interim results during Q1 2010. -- To continue to seek partnerships with leaders in the cell therapy field to enhance their technology platforms using Sernova’s Cell Pouch System™. Such partnerships would potentially enable Sernova to capture the value of its intellectual property beyond its current focus in diabetes. -- To continue to increase Sernova’s access to industry leaders and technical expertise by expanding the Company’s business and scientific advisory boards. -- To ensure the Company has adequate financial resources to achieve its goals through further equity financings, strategic investments and grant funding. 

About Sernova

Sernova Corp. is a Canadian-based health sciences company focused on product development and commercialization of innovative proprietary platform medical technologies in the cell therapy arena such as the Cell Pouch System™ to provide a safe and efficacious environment for therapeutic cells and Sertolin™, a technology which, when combined with cell therapy, may protect therapeutic cells without the need for patients to take anti-rejection drugs.

This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors - including availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, the results of research and product development activities -- that could cause actual results to differ materially from Sernova’s expectations are disclosed in Sernova’s documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.