EDINBURGH, Scotland and KOBE, Japan and MELBOURNE, Australia and SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Stem Cell Sciences , the global stem cell company, has been named by Scientific American magazine as a Business Leader in the 2005 Scientific American 50 -- the magazine’s prestigious annual list recognizing outstanding acts of leadership in science and technology from the past year.
Stem Cell Sciences (SCS) plc leads a global alliance of SCS companies and collaborating academic stem cell scientists from around the world and successfully completed an Initial Public Offering on the London Alternate Investment Market (AIM) in July 2005. SCS is focused on ensuring that stem cell technology delivers early stage benefit to society through applications in drug discovery and in the longer term, through the development of cell-based therapies in areas of unmet medical need such as central nervous system (CNS) degenerative diseases.
Through the application of a broad, proprietary portfolio of patents and technologies SCS has been able to generate a continuous supply of highly purified stem cells, thereby clearing a major hurdle that has previously prevented the full integration of such cells into commercial drug discovery. The portfolio includes a novel neural stem cell, the first human tissue stem cell able to grow pure stem cell populations in fully defined growth media, and human multipotent adipose-derived stem cells (hMADS). hMADS will be the first cell type to be evaluated by SCS for therapeutic use in muscular degenerative diseases through an international collaboration led by SCS plc’s Japanese affiliate, SCS KK.
Peter Mountford, CEO of Stem Cell Sciences said: “We are honored to be recognized for our work in the area of stem cell research and to be named as a Business Leader of the Scientific American 50. This highlights the progress we have made in becoming a leader in our field through our international and collaborative approach to business and science.”
A core feature of SCS’ business strategy is on-going access to cutting edge research through long-term partnerships with academia. All current SCS operations are located within or adjacent to the leading academic centres of excellence with which they collaborate, including the Institute for Stem Cell Research (Edinburgh University), RIKEN Centre for Developmental Biology (Kobe) and the Australia Stem Cell Centre (Melbourne). As part of this strategy, SCS is planning to establish a US operation in California at the beginning of 2006. This will enable increased licensing of its discovery platform technologies to the biopharmaceutical industry and provide access to cutting edge preclinical, academic research specifically targeted at future cell-based therapies for neurological disease.
In 2005 SCS actively contributed to government planning and policy development worldwide. In the UK, SCS is the sole biotech member of the UK government’s Stem Cell Initiative panel that is responsible for delivering the 10 year strategy and budget for the UK stem cell program. The Company also contributed to the Federal Government review of therapeutic cloning legislation in Australia and indirectly through contributions at meetings such as the Milken Institute 2005 State of the State conference in the US.
“The Scientific American 50 is our annual opportunity to salute the people and organizations worldwide whose research, policy or business leadership has played a major role in bringing about the science and technology innovations that are improving the way we live and offer the greatest hope for the future,” said Editor-In-Chief of Scientific American, John Rennie.
Selected by the magazine’s Board of Editors with the help of distinguished outside advisors, the Scientific American 50 spotlights a Research Leader of the Year, a Business Leader of the Year and a Policy Leader of the Year. The list also recognizes research, business and policy leaders who have played a critical role in advancing key technology trends of the past year, such as the rise of Stem Cells, Flexible Electronics, Silicon Lasers, Flu Preparedness and more.
About Stem Cell Sciences
Stem Cell Sciences (SCS) is a global biotechnology company established in Melbourne Australia in 1994 to undertake development and commercialization of stem cell technologies. SCS is headquartered in Edinburgh, UK with a wholly owned R&D subsidiary in Melbourne, Australia and an affiliated company, SCS KK, based in Kobe Japan. SCS is expanding operations in 2006 to Cambridge, UK and the US. The new UK site in Cambridge will focus on automation of cell-based drug discovery assays for the pharmaceutical industry. The US expansion will initially be based on licensing opportunities of key SCS technologies, including Stem Cell Selection and novel Neural Stem Cell technology. SCS plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM) under the code STEM.
About Scientific American 50
Past Scientific American 50 winners have spotlighted visionaries from an array of fields. Prior honorees have included stem cell researcher Douglas A. Melton, Professor of the National
Sciences at Harvard (2004 Policy Leader of the Year); Nobel prize-winning neurobiologist Roderick MacKinnon, Professor of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics of Rockefeller University (2003 Research Leader of the Year); aviation leader Burt Rutan, President, Scaled Composites (2003 Aerospace/Business Leader): global public health leader Gro Harlem Brundtland, former World Health Organization Secretary General (2003 Policy Leader of the Year); corporate chief Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric Company (2002 General Technology/Business Leader); and high tech innovator Steven Jobs, CEO, Apple (2002 Communications/Business Leader).
Founded in 1845, editorial contributors to Scientific American have included over 100 Nobel laureates, among them Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Francis Crick, Stanley Prusiner and Harold Varmus.Scientific American, Inc. is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, a U.S. subsidiary of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, a privately held international media corporation operating in more than 40 countries. In addition to Scientific American, Holtzbrinck Publishers includes the book publishing houses Farrar, Straus & Giroux; W.H. Freeman; Henry Holt and Company; St. Martin’s Press and Tor; the academic scholarly publishing company Palgrave U.S.; the College Publishing Group of Bedford Freeman Worth; and the distribution company VHPS.
Scientific American 50 appears in the magazine’s December issue, arriving on news stands November 22. The complete list may also be accessed on the magazine’s website at www.sciam.com.
Stem Cell Sciences plc
CONTACT: Peter Mountford, President and CEO, +1-415-425-6540, orpeter.mountford@stemcellsciences.com, or Hugh Ilyine, Vice President andCOO, +44-0-131-662-9829, or hugh.ilyine@stemcellsciences.com, both of StemCell Sciences plc; or European PR Contact, Yvonne Alexander of WeberShandwick Square Mile, +44-0-20-7076-0700, oryalexander@webershandwick.com, or U.S. Miriam Mason of Stem Cell Sciences,+1-415-248-3433, or mmason@webershandwick.com, for Stem Cell Sciences; orElizabeth Ames of BOLDE Communications & Public Relations, Inc,+1-212-727-1680, or eames@boldepr.com, for Scientific American
Web site: http://www.sciam.com//
