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Profile
Tissera Inc. is a public
company based in Washington and committed to developing, testing and
commercializing tissue transplantation therapies based on an approach
employing organ-specific precursor tissues.
The company is conducting its research
and development activities through Tissera Ltd, a fully owned
subsidiary, located in Israel.
Tissera's approach involves
harvesting embryonic mammalian tissue at the earliest stage at which
stem cells commit to becoming organ-specific precursor tissues and
transplanting them in target organ systems. The fundamental
concept is to make use of natural growth and differentiation in vivo
and to treat a range of diseases avoiding isolation, culturing,
expansion or genetically engineering tissues or cells. Proof of
principle was demonstrated in experiments conducted in Prof. Reisner’s
lab at the Weizmann Institute and described in
Nature
Medicine (December 2002).
These experiments showed that kidney precursor cells harvested from
human and porcine embryos and implanted in mice
grow and
undergo complete nephrogenesis.
Tissera's novel technology
also demonstrated reduced host immune response so that a minimum of
immunosuppressant drugs is required even in cross-species transplants (“xenotransplants”).
Current
research conducted involves transplantation of kidney liver and pancreas
tissues. Research in progress is directed to further developing
the technology as well as extending its applications.
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