TissueGen, Inc. Expands Core Team And Advances Spinal Cord Injury Repair And Regenerative Medicine Applications in 2014

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - January 20, 2015) -

TissueGen® Inc., developer of ELUTE® fiber, a groundbreaking biodegradable fiber format for advanced drug delivery, closed out 2014 with the establishment of a senior scientist position to manage the company’s spinal cord injury (SCI) repair program. The growth of TissueGen’s core team -- which the company expects to continue to grow in 2015 by as much as 50% -- is a fitting end to a year marked by expansion and R&D in additional application markets and well positions TissueGen to advance its development of spinal cord injury repair and regenerative medicine applications and further improve its core product offering in the new year.

“2014 has been an exciting year for us in terms of fielding our technology and really exploring how ELUTE fiber can be used to advance nerve repair and regenerative medicine,” said Christopher Knowles, president and CEO, TissueGen. “We have made great strides in our research and development efforts to validate the benefits of our novel method of drug and growth factor delivery and we expect to accelerate these advancements in 2015.”

For example, regenerative neurobiology experts from the University of Texas at Dallas led by Dr. Mario Romero-Ortega, associate professor in the department of bioengineering, demonstrated a groundbreaking model for nerve regeneration at Neuroscience 2014 that utilized both TissueGen’s ELUTE fibers and TissueGen’s licensed, patent-pending technology for creating chemical gradients. The proposed model could improve current nerve repair strategies to optimize the regeneration of injured neurons and the recovery of function in patients suffering from paralysis without requiring tissue to be harvested from elsewhere in the patient’s body.

In addition to the license from University of Texas at Arlington for chemical gradient technology that enables directed growth of tissues in the body, TissueGen received a patent for its self-anchoring ARCHER™ stent with drug delivery capabilities. Ideal for applications where it is critical for a device to stay in place when implanted in tubular organs of the human body, TissueGen’s ARCHER helical coil device may act as a vascular stent or anchor for other devices such as filters or indwelling catheters.

To support its development efforts, TissueGen completed several major facility upgrade projects in 2014, including the installation of a Class 10,000 clean room facility, investment in a major information technology upgrade, and acquisition of cutting edge manufacturing and development laboratory tools critical to the company’s product quality focus in 2015.

In 2014, the company exhibited at MD&M East in New York and presented at numerous other industry events including MD&M Texas, Advanced Textiles Expo 2014, AMI’s Polymers in Drug Delivery Devices 2014 and the Biomedical Engineering Society’s Women in BME Luncheon 2014.

About TissueGen
TissueGen® Inc. has more than four decades of cumulative experience in extruding biodegradable polymer fibers with broad drug delivery capabilities well-suited for advanced drug delivery, nerve regeneration, and tissue engineering. TissueGen offers the medical market a portfolio of issued patents on unique drug delivery technology with the capability to incorporate and elute a broad range of biologically derived therapeutics and standard pharmaceuticals in hydrophobic, biodegradable polymeric fibers or tubes for sustained therapeutic release. For more information, please visit www.tissuegen.com.