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Solgene Gets Grant to Study Bone-Healing Therapy

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Solgene Therapeutics LLC, a biotech drug firm in Westlake Village, has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study a bone-healing therapy based on the implantation of genetically altered living cells that secrete bone-growth factors.

The company also announced that it has applied for patents involving the encapsulation in inorganic materials of live cells that secrete hundreds of compounds. The bone-growth cells are inside a ceramic material.

Company officials said this technology represents an advance over earlier live-cell encapsulation programs that tried to shield the implanted cells with organic materials.

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Solgene has been issued three patents and has four others pending.

The institute’s $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant will allow Solgene to test a potential therapy based on cell-secreted bone-growth factors, and to explore optimum sites for the implantation of encapsulated cells. Solgene is collaborating on the project with Dr. Joseph Lane, professor of orthopedic medicine and associate dean at Cornell University Medical School.

The study will build on earlier institute-funded research in which Solgene overcame the effects of diabetes in mice.

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